Supreme Commander: Mass Effect 2
by Guardian54
Summary: Sequel to SupCom: ME, covers ME 2 events, James/Tali, John/Liara, note that reading ME: Supreme Redemption is not required, nor are the other fics in my string though things make more sense then. BTW: Any sexual content is purely to advance plot. STILL lol!OP!Humanity...
1. Until Another Day

A/N: I decided WorldWar: Supreme Balance was too boring, I mean, it's all negotiations and basically the Race getting knocked on their scaly asses by the power of Coalition Technology, hence, I'm here with SupCom: ME 2 a bit early.

* * *

Chapter 1: Until Another Day

_The Migrant Fleet, August 17, 3868_

Tali'Zorah nar Rayya was pacing nervously as the Normandy approached the Migrant Fleet, she hoped her Pilgrimage gift was enough to get her accepted into the Neema's crew, then again, it was probably decent enough to get her accepted into any crew in the Migrant Fleet. After giving the relevant code to ascertain it was her and she was not under duress, the Normandy was permitted to dock with the Rayya and she, along with the Shepard twins in their Cybran Heavy Armour, stepped off into her birth ship. She had been upgraded to Aeon Medium Armour now, and so her helmet's solid front and optic lights hid her face, though it did not mask her expression.

"Is this how your people live?" James knew perfectly well that anyone claustrophobic would be effectively screwed here, and was wondering what he could do to help out.

"In a word, yes. I hope the Normandy hasn't spoiled me too much… I'm getting off-topic, we need to meet the Admirals at the Garden Square, and that's… that way." She gestured and they began moving "Anyway, this… is why we fight the Geth even after all these generations." She fell silent as they walked toward where the board of Admirals waited.

* * *

_Neema, Migrant Fleet, August 18, 3868_

Tali sighed as she disengaged the armour locks and took it off, piece by piece, the foot and calf pieces first, then the thigh sections slid off and she unsnapped the seals and buckles holding the torso piece together and shrugged it off, then removed her arm pieces. She stuck them all in the decontamination chute for cleaning, and then started stripping out of her environment suit. Grey and black fabrics and plastics peeled away from lavender skin with a sigh of contentment, since Tali knew that this would be the last time in a while that she would be able to remove her environment suit.

Aboard the Normandy, whenever she was alone in her quarters, the decontamination field emitters the Coalition had installed for her had allowed her to work, eat and sleep outside the suit. Needless to say, the first few nights were spent in near-orgasmic pleasure at the constant contact of the soft sheets against her sensitive skin. Of course, Quarian enviro-suits still provided contact sensory input, but compared to the blissful feeling of full-body contact, it was nothing. Showers had at first needed to be extremely low current, since too much pressure stung her skin, but eventually she had toughened up and become more used to it.

She was supposed to spend twenty-four hours here, in this decontamination room, with its decontamination fields, while they prepared her new enviro-suit, an adult suit, for use, and checked over her armour. She hoped they didn't do anything overly stupid like trying to hack into it, since that would result in a core overload and probably blow a hole in the deck and bulkheads around the room they worked in.

She parted most reluctantly with the omni-gel dispenser of the armour, since it gave her a glimpse at what the technology of omni-gel moulding could become. According to James, "The Council has nanolathing technology at its fingertips. They just don't have adequate power generation to use it on much more than Omni-gel packets. Tali, I trust you to keep this, and to keep this technology from becoming widespread too soon. You know what happened to my kind when we discovered it, don't let that become a galactic thing." He had said, staring into her silvery eyes, barely visible under the mask, just before he authorized the omni-gel dispenser's secondary functions, as a partial engineering suite, to her for the duration of her life. He'd gone off to find John and tell him about it later, while Tali was still looking down to her arm, wondering why the warmth of James' hand seemed to have lingered after he had gone. She hoped they'd meet again someday.

She began inspecting her body, completely nude except for her underwear, which was pointless anyways and was only there as a sort-of reminder of when the Quarians could wear normal clothes outside and breathe normal air. She looked in the floor to ceiling mirror that was built into one wall and ran a hand through the short hair on her head, its growth suppressed by chemicals included in the air of the enviro-suits, sighing at the feeling that she had experienced many times on the Normandy but would likely be deprived of for quite some time now.

She was struck by the contrast between the two societies she'd been part of. The Coalition of Species was the shining example of the possibility of abundant plenty without over-lavishness and debauchery. The Migrant Fleet, effectively a refugee fleet, was the model for poverty and poor conditions without society devolving into chaos and self-destruction. Tali toyed briefly with the idea of the Migrant Fleet joining up with the Coalition, since she knew the plight of the Cybrans to have been similar to their own problem, except they could fight back effectively. Then she shook her head, her people had far too much of an AI-phobia to accept joining a Coalition where the Cybran Nation was one of the founding members. She herself didn't trust AIs implicitly yet, but she could trust Cybrans with her life… _and probably more…_ a snide part of her remarked.

She scolded it _Oh shut up you…_

_Tali, Tali, when will you ever learn? You're falling for him, falling hard._

Tali mentally crossed her arms defensively _I am not falling for James!_

_When did I mention a name?_

She realized she'd dug herself into a hole… _Shit… hey, since when did I talk to myself?_

_Since you started mentally debating whether or not you should confess to him, you little bosh'tet._ Her mind eye-rolled at her brain.

"Well, too late now, he's gone."

_He'll be back, if he's anything like his brother, he'll be back for you._

"Damn."

* * *

_Tuchanka, August 19, 3868_

John Shepard offered Wrex a gift-wrapped package "Here's the Genophage data I promised you, I hope it helps, Wrex, the Krogan don't deserve what the Council did to them, to you."

"Thank you, John Shepard, I will not forget this, when it comes time to stand against the Reapers, give me a call and I will bring the united Krogan clans to fight by your side. You have my word, Shepard, live long and prosper." He turned with a nod of respect and began walking out of the Restorer in his Seraphim Heavy Armour, then abruptly paused just outside the airlock, turning to fix red beady eyes on one Asari Scientist "You and him will produce strong children, breed well, Liara T'Soni."

The Asari's cheeks tinged purple as she blushed, before she said, eyes twinkling playfully "Oh we will, won't we, John?" Her man nodded mutely in shock at her uncharacteristic boldness.

Wrex, once he'd gotten over the shock, chuckled as he shook his head and walked away from the Restorer back to the Urdnot camp. "Have fun, guys."

* * *

_Citadel, September 1, 3868_

"So, Garrus, how's C-Sec been doing?" John asked idly, they were sitting together in Flux, himself, Liara, Garrus, Ash and Kaidan, drinking together.

"Same old damned bureaucratic red tape as before, other than the Coalition Marines and Raiders doing security and law enforcement down in the wards and righting wrongs, policing on the Citadel is useless." Garrus gestured around in frustration "C-Sec isn't doing shit for the people on the Citadel. It's been rebuilt already and we're still in a shambles. I'm considering quitting out of sheer irritation."

"Come on, Garrus, don't be like that, surely something good's come out of it…" Liara patted the Turian's blue and grey-armoured back with her white-armoured hand.

"Well, the fact that they executed every single organ dealer on the Citadel on the Ward Squares probably helped, and the fact that they completely annihilated the slave and drug trafficking by distributing antitoxins that remove addictions and by purging the dealers… So all in all I guess something good did come out of it…" the Turian said thoughtfully before knocking back another shot.

* * *

_The Migrant Fleet, October 19, 3868_

The news caught Tali in her little alcove completely off-guard. Like most Quarians, she was given a cubicle, hers was in fact somewhat larger than most, but it still resulted in her sleeping in her armour all the time, since it was only licensed to her and thus could not be effectively stored in the armoury lockers that were shared for all the Marines. "Commander Shepard was reported to have been killed in an attack from a mysterious foe on the CSC Normandy over Alchera." Her heart skipped a beat and she shivered, frantically bringing up the relevant article on her suit's permanent quantum extranet connection, which was still functional, though the signal was relatively weak and slow, and sighed in relief "Good, it's not James…" then she frowned at herself and suddenly felt bad about her thoughts, what made James so much more important than John, who she looked up to as a sort of brother, in her mind? _You know it, Tali_. Her mind slithered seductively around her train of thought.

"NO!" She yelled back, though her helmet dampened the sound reaching the outside to suit the current shipboard time, when people were sleeping.

_Resistance is futile, Tali, you know it to be true._ Her mind cooed.

"Ugh… forget it. I need to get a better line of work… join up with the Marines instead of the engineering boys, that'll do it." She said as if to herself before tapping into the fleet network and starting to type her transfer request, explaining that she felt she could serve her people better by bringing the equipment licensed only to her into the field against the fleet's enemies instead of wasting the armour's powerful protective abilities and her weapons' damage potential in Engineering.

* * *

_The Migrant Fleet, January 17, 3869_

"Hey Tali, how's life?" Her suit comm. squawked and she frowned as she finished typing up the mission report, thankfully, her squad suffered no casualties due to them collectively taking cover behind her, as unlike her old Aeon Light Armour her Aeon Medium had an over-shield bubble

"James? Is that you?" She ventured into her helmet, watching the comm. display and noting that it was a two-way-only connection.

"Yep, it's me; mom's assigned me a Hunter Clutch to help the Migrant Fleet's security issues."

"James, you know perfectly well the Fleet doesn't react well to outsiders… we're rather insular." Tali said slowly.

"Ever wondered how few pirate raids there have been on the Fleet in the last few months?" Her helmet speakers asked "Surprisingly few" was the answer that came to mind, since the Migrant Fleet came under attack from pirates and slavers at least once a month. Considering they were near Batarian space right now, it was expected that there would be two or three per month. Thus far, there had been zero, but they had found significant amounts of scrap and wreckage in systems they proceeded to and the systems scouts checked out nearby…

"You've been blowing them all up, haven't you?"

"Yes, the Coalition sent me on this humanitarian aid mission. We're staying well out of your affairs but helping you in your defence."

"How many and what classes of ships do you have, James? I don't want the same sort of thing happening to you as…"

"A full Hunter Clutch is what I've got assigned to me for this mission, a Heavy Cruiser, two Light Cruisers, three Destroyers, six Frigates and ten Corvettes. We WOULD help you guys with some other help too in the form of repairs and parts, but we don't want to offend."

"A full Hunter Clutch? That's a battle fleet!" Tali exclaimed, drinking in the statistics rolling across her HUD when she brought up the specifications for the ships. "You requested this assignment, didn't you?" She grinned accusingly, knowing perfectly well that he couldn't see anything more than her enviro-suit's polarized visor whereas she could see his face on her HUD.

"No, no, my mother sent me here…" James actually blushed after he trailed off.

"What are you blushing for, James?" She tilted her head inquisitively, and the helmet internal holo-cam rotated to stay constant to gravity and give the perspective needed for James to appreciate the tilt.

"Nothing… nothing, except my mother was annoyed with me and sent me here, that's why I got the assignment."

"You'd think she'd want to keep you close after John…" Tali stopped, realizing she'd blundered into something she should have stayed out of.

"Yeah, but… maybe someday I'll tell you exactly why she sent me over here… but please, leave it for now… so, how have you been?"

* * *

FLASHBACK

_CSC Iwo Jima, November 16, 3868_

"Hey James, anything new down in the cargo hold or kitchens?" Hannah Shepard had just gotten her food from the ship's cook, aka her son now that he was onboard again. He was on cargo hold duty in addition to kitchen duty these days, due to her being annoyed at him recently.

"Not really" was the glum reply, Hannah blinked, her chopsticks halfway to her mouth with a load of stir-fry, mouth still open in shock. The vegetables fell into her rice bowl without a sound as they slipped from her loosened grasp.

"Are you okay, son?" she put her chopsticks down and put a hand on her boy's forehead. "Doesn't feel like you've got a fever…"

"Stop, mom, I'm fine." He pushed her away gently.

Hannah still had a frown on her face "You've got nothing about Tali? It's been five days since you've said anything about her."

"Well, we are keeping up our correspondence, but I don't think you need to know every little detail."

"Ah… you think I don't approve of you two being together, do you?" the evil glare was all the answer Hannah needed "It's not that I don't approve, it's that I can't take you talking about her every minute of every day… I have an offer to make you. The top dogs authorized a covert escort mission."

James glanced up from his food "For what?"

"Have you heard of the Quarian Migrant Fleet?"

That got James' attention "Of course I have!"

"We're giving you command of a Hunter Clutch to go and assist the Migrant Fleet against the pirates and slavers who have been attacking them over the past few months, ever since they neared Batarian space."

"When does my mission start?" That was James' only question.

"As soon as you can get moving, I'm detaching one Hunter Clutch of the 3rd Hunter Squadron to you, bring it back intact and I won't ground you from command for the rest of your life, got it?"

"Yes ma'am."

"Good, now get moving, there's a young woman who's VERY interested in you who'd absolutely love to be able to get a live uplink with your armour comms where no one can see or hear you talk." Hannah grinned as her little boy blushed; kids were always oh so fun to tease.

"Yes, ma'am." James saluted before running off toward his quarters to pack his stuff and suit up in his armour, Hannah's chuckling going unheard.

END FLASHBACK

* * *

"I've been great, just came back from a mission with a squad of Migrant Fleet Marines to save a group of Quarians from slavers. Do you want the combat footage?" She prepped the relevant holo-cam footage for transmission with a few clicks on her chest-projected holoconsole.

"No, it would be better for me if you just described it." James was off his shift anyways, so he had plenty of time to spend listening to her sweet, slightly metallic voice… _Damn, boy, you're losing it fast, don't scare her away now…_ a voice that sounded a lot like his dead brother (their mother never told them who was older, so they couldn't use it against each other in their occasional disputes) spoke into his head, he rolled his eyes mentally.

"Alright, I just need to finish off this mission report… could you wait a bit?" She began typing again on her holoconsole as the Picture-In-Picture box on James' HUD comm. window showed her current perspective, centered on her holo-console. The rest of the HUD showed a virtual meeting room with only him and Tali, though her virtual avatar's fingers were busy typing in what appeared to him to be empty air.

"Sure, Tali, how long should I wait for?"

"It should just be a minute…"a long pause while James kept on watching her silver eyes behind her purple-tinted mask—the Aeon Medium Armour's helmet had to be adjusted to fit around her enviro-suit helmet—until her avatar looked back up at him, or rather his avatar in the virtual space "there, that's done now, so, you wanted to hear my story?"

"Yes, here, let's get a better environment for this chat… shall we?"

"No problem… oh… well I wasn't expecting this…" James had chosen a warm, sunny beach, with them as the only occupants sitting on the porch of a small cottage, under an umbrella at the center of a round table. "Is this…"

"This isn't Earth, it's a place on a planet named Paradise which is home to some of the greatest resorts in the Coalition and especially the UEF. This same region, modified to be fair, is often used, in a smaller format of course, for training ACU pilots in simulators. However, for now, it's just you and me on this particular island and in this virtual region; so, you wanted to tell me…"

"Alright, so we were out on this mission to rescue a bunch of Quarians kidnapped by slavers to an outpost on some planet near Batarian Space that I'm not going to bother trying to remember the name of… I was with my usual crew, Kal'Reegar's crew…"

* * *

_Near Batarian Space, January 13, 3869_

"Damn… we need to get an LZ closer to the target…" Kal'Reegar said as they surveyed the holo-map of the operation area. "But we don't have any clear areas large enough to land the shuttle… those slavers did their homework well, too well, ma'am." He nodded to her as she watched the hologram carefully. This was her first mission, since it had taken a while for her request to be processed and appropriate arrangements be made. The Neema's captain had been quite happy about it, since she provided her own armour, gleaming white and green plates that self-repaired and self-cleaned. She stood out in contrast to the other Quarians, who were in generally dull colours, Kal's dull red being the brightest of all of the others. They'd reached consensus that Tali should be in charge of the squad, since her exploits with Commander Shepard were renowned within the Fleet.

"We don't need to land the shuttle near their position, Kal, can you find a position less than six kilometres away from the slavers' camp that we can land the shuttle at without being detected."

"Of course, ma'am, why do you ask?"

"One of the best things about this armour… I can fly, limited duration flight but still, I can use my passive stealth systems to get close and defeat their radar, and cloak to defeat optical sensors, also, I have these…" she pulled the covering panel aside to show her grenade bandolier "each of these Sonance Grenades" She pointed at them "can utterly destroy an anti-aircraft gun or enemy radar tower with absurd yield, in fact, even these Electron Grenades will do the job, or a few good hits from my guns. Just tell me which structures you need gone."

"Well…" Kal and the other marines shared a look before he replied "We need at least two of these three AA towers dealt with before we can land in absolute safety, and ideally dispose of the barracks here too." He highlighted the relevant structures in the holo-display and Tali nodded, grinning under her visor, this would be a classic infiltration mission, the sort she had often trained for with Shepard, and of course, often played on in the video games aboard the Normandy in her spare time i.e. when not working or contemplating the intricacies of Quantum technology and how Citadel Tech could have gone that way, but Mass Effect simply offered a less steep learning curve. "Also, there is a small motor pool here, we can't afford letting the slavers get the Landcruiser they have there online."

Tali nodded "Alright, I'll deal with all of those, what about where the Quarians are being held?"

"That's here, in this warehouse, it is heavily guarded, including several YMIR Mechs." Those mechs, like the LOKI and FENRIS mechs that had proliferated in the merc market these days, were constructed by a human company, Raynor's Raider Industries, they would pose a threat to any non-vehicular, Council tech target with their heavy rockets and Gauss Rifles but to her… they may as well be paper.

"Got it, let me down somewhere near the enemy base and sit back, watch and relax as I feed you guys my holo-footage. When I finish up and call you, drop into provide additional support and to help the freed prisoners into the ship. Is that alright with you all?" They nodded, eager to see exactly what the vaunted Coalition technology could do and wondering if their new CO was insane or not.

"Understood, ma'am, where do you wish to be dropped off?"

Tali pinched down on one point on the hologram using her thumb and middle finger (Quarians only have three fingers, so it would be the index finger as far as humans were concerned) "Here."

* * *

_Near Batarian Space, January 13, 3869_

"I'm not sure this is entirely wise, ma'am…" Kal'Reegar said nervously, looking down from where their shuttle hovered.

"Don't worry, now, make sure you guys find somewhere safe to hide in the shuttle until I call you, alright? See you later!" The last part was transmitted only by helmet comms, since Tali had already boosted out of the shuttle's loading ramp, straight out over the blue lake the slaver base was situated near. "See, as I said before, I can fly." She quickly vanished into a speck in the distance, flying low over the lake toward the enemy camp.

"Well, I guess it was a good idea after all… I gotta get me one of those." Kal said, blinking behind his visor.

* * *

Tali touched down softly outside the enemy camp and readied her weapons. The first two guards, a Turian and a Batarian, didn't even see her coming in the night, their sensors registering nothing even when an armoured hand wrapped around the Batarian's mouth. She seized him from behind and sliced through his neck fast and hard enough to pop the head right off when she tossed the corpse aside. Then she nailed the Turian in the back of the head with two Laser SMG bolts, the slaver went down without a sound as her helmet stopped making the "pew pew" sound effects. Though technically her weapons were nearly silent, they did make a very quiet sound like that, so the helmet indicated when her weapons were firing and when they weren't. It also detected nearby weapons fire and made the sound detectable and tolerable at the same time.

Tali pondered her cold killing of those two slavers as she waited for her energy reserves to charge up to full capacity. Had she always been so cold and efficient on missions, or so brutal? She didn't think so, but it seemed that working with Shepard and the Coalition crew had given her a clear idea of the fact that if what is right is worth fighting for, then it's worth fighting dirty or brutally for.

Once her energy reserves were fully charged, Tali cloaked and boosted over the camp wall, taking note of the two sniper towers that overlooked the camp from the sides and the slavers manning machine guns there. She set her grenades to remote detonation and made her way to the AA towers that were just inside the camp's gates, slapping one Sonance Grenade onto the underside of a control panel in each one and slitting the throats of the sentries after silencing them with her hand. Then she boosted over the heads of a few patrolling slavers to the left side (relative to the way into the front gate of the base) watchtower.

Seizing one of her Electron Grenades, she stuck it to the main support column that held the watchtower up, putting it on the far side from prying eyes. She then went for the barracks and grabbed a newly-lathed Sonance Grenade, planting it under a mess table in the barracks the slavers were using before distributing more Electron Grenades and a few Sonance Grenades all over the place. After she had made the rounds, except for the slave pen on the back right side of the base, Tali stood in the center of said base, her cloak running out of power and her finger activating the detonator at the exact same time.

All three AA Towers, the Landcruiser and other vehicles parked in the Motor Pool, the two watchtowers, and the Barracks went up in simultaneous massive explosions that lit up the night as Tali, armed with Phasic Shotgun and Laser SMG, began blasting away at the slavers, the ones not already dead. "Alright boys, it's safe to come in now." She hollered over comms as she turned her guns on the YMIRs while their rockets impacted her shields and actually took some off her over-shield bar. "Shit!" She winced at the dent in her over-shield just before she dove out of the way of the next two rockets. Shockingly, the YMIRs had not been destroyed by the Electron Grenades she'd planted on them nor the rounds she'd gotten into them when they'd been disabled by the EMP. "Huh, tougher than I thought."

Eventually though, in the face of Tali's firepower and far superior protection, the mechs fell one after the other after each getting stuck with another Electron Grenade. It only took one or two shots from her Phasic Shotgun to put a slaver out of commission after she wore down the mechs. Considering said shotgun could pull four shots per second and there weren't many slavers left, she had a field day cutting them down before the Marines dropped into the middle of the blazing base and took over mowing the rest down.

"I'm heading for the slave pen, Kal, Owen, with me, and stand behind my armour, alright, I don't want anything happening to you guys." The two marines fell in line behind her as she booted down the door of the slave pen building and came face-to-face with ten shotgun barrels. She already had her arms up, shotgun in her right hand and LSMG in her left. She fired both on full auto, using the naturally low recoil of the weapons in addition to her armour's recoil dampening to accurately blast the slavers there to oblivion. The slavers' shotgun pellets, thrown by their mass accelerators, splattered off her powerful over-shields harmlessly without even doing too much damage.

Blue and red decorated the walls as Turians and Batarians alike exploded from phased plasma munitions from her Phasic Shotgun while Tali's LSMG blazed through their shields like a force of nature, holing them repeatedly without fail. In the end, her over-shields hadn't even gone down when she, with some assistance from the two Marines she'd herded into using her as a piece of cover, finished off the last slaver… other than the one holding a gun to the head of a hostage Quarian.

"Don't move, or she dies!" the Turian yelled, Tali almost facepalmed, the guy's posture was all wrong, and he obviously didn't have the sort of training, say, Garrus had.

"What's your name, girl?" Tali barked gruffly, causing the two male marines to exchange a look at their leader's sudden change in tone.

"Lia… Lia'Vael nar Ulnay…" The young girl stopped struggling when the Turian pushed the pistol tighter to her enviro-suit's helmet.

"Alright, alright, we'll back away now, let the hostage go." Tali took a step back.

"Drop your weapons first." The Turian demanded.

Tali grinned behind her helmet and visor. "Drop your weapons boys."

"But ma'am…" Owen started, but Tali snorted and glared at him.

"DROP THEM!" She roared, causing the two Marines to comply as she did the same.

The Turian started moving forward, following their backward progress… until Tali rounded the corner into the foyer from the main slave holding area and cloaked out of his sight. She put a Laser Pistol round squarely between his eyes, causing him to drop backward to the ground soundless and boneless. She materialized out of thin air and caught the shaking young girl in her arms before she could fall "No more hostiles in the area." Tali growled to her marines, having checked her Omni sensor readout beforehand "go free the rest of the slaves. Lia, are you alright?"

"Ye… Yes… Thank you…"

"Tali'Zorah vas Neema, you are on your Pilgrimage, are you not?"

"I had… just started my Pilgrimage when I got abducted."

"Ah yes, your group set out a couple weeks ago, right. I remember now…" It was the first group sent out since the Battle of the Citadel, though in Tali's opinion it would have been better to send them right after the Battle, straight to the Citadel, since the Raiders and Coalition Marines provided far more security and were far less racist than typical members of the Council Races or the other non-Coalition races toward Quarians. "Anyway, we need to help the others." The slave pen held not only Quarians but Asari, Batarians and Turians as well, all of whom were very thankful to the rescuers.

* * *

"That was the first actual mission I went out on. We saved over two dozen Quarians and over a hundred members of other species that day." Tali said "I was, however, disturbed by how I simply killed those slavers."

"You did the right thing, Tali, my people, the Cybran Nation, took a while to do it,, but in the end we learned that we couldn't survive against the UEF and Aeon by trying to reason or negotiate with them. We may not have learned the habit of 'cleansing' planets during the Infinite War, but we picked up the mantle of ACU warfare like they did… If you hadn't killed those slavers, they would have gone on to kill, maim or otherwise harm other innocents. HE who has no mercy does not deserve to be shown any."

Tali sighed "I know James, but what if I turn into what I'm fighting?" her voice had gone awfully quiet by the end of that sentence.

"As long as you hold onto your own morals, Tali, you will never corrupt who you are inside. Justice means many things, for example, sometimes, instead of sending him back to jail where you know he'll break out again soon, you should simply execute a criminal. John and I share that train of thought, we don't believe in giving people who don't deserve it second chances. Those slavers, they didn't deserve to live after what they did to those and countless other people over the years, Tali." James Shepard's avatar was standing rather close to Tali's now on the virtual beach.

"I think I understand where you're coming from, James, thank you for being here in my moment of insecurity…"

James smiled tenderly, looking down at Tali's avatar's visor "That's what friends are for." He said just before they had to say their goodbyes and get to sleep, after all, there was work to do the next day.

* * *

COALITION CODEX ENTRY: YMIR SECURITY MECH

Raynor's Raiders have found multiple sources of extra income independent of the Coalition, as the Coalition had urged them to. This is one of their business ventures, the YMIR Mech. Equipped with a K-12 Punisher Grenade Launcher on the left arm and a Gauss Rifle on the right arm; it stands 2.5 meters tall and is equipped with standard Mass Effect shield generators as well as heavy armour for its size.

Though completely insufficient against Coalition-level technologies, the YMIR has proven extremely effective as an anti-personnel mech in Citadel Space, and sales are booming for Raynor's Raiders. Though shipments are only to the militaries of the Council Races, they aren't exactly that great at protecting their own convoys, hence YMIR Mechs have proliferated in Citadel Space to the point where the Coalition has given up on asking the Raiders to not sell to merc groups.

The weapons it has are upgraded from the equipment of typical Marauders and Marines, able to fire one RPG round every two seconds as opposed to the original four, and the Gauss Rifle's ammunition no longer uses cartridges. Instead, the Gauss Rifle uses ammo blocks, though in reality this is hardly necessary as it can maintain one-half the maximum firing rate running off of the Mech's power core, without an ammo block to reclaim and re-shape. This is another example of how the Council does in fact have small-scale nanolathing tech but have not attained the needed energy sources to exploit large-scale nanolathing.

The YMIR has a fearsome reputation in Council Space, and also a reputation for earning the Raiders good money with sales. For those who prefer less bulky machines, the Raiders have created the LOKI and FENRIS mechs.

END OF CODEX ENTRY

FOR MORE INFORMATION PLEASE SEE "LOKI SECURITY MECH", "FENRIS SECURITY MECH", "RAYNOR'S RAIDERS", ETC.

* * *

A/N: Yep, I changed the YMIR to not be quite so papery… It feels SO good to write another Codex Entry.

You didn't expect Lia to turn up here, did you?

Also, I don't approve of how Batman insists on sending the Joker to jail every time, as long as you hold firm to your morals, there is a kind of justice that is only within what is right. Batman should have executed the Joker as soon as he caught him a second time. "Some people, they don't deserve second chances, Jimmy." I think that's a line from Tychus Findlay in Starcraft 2.


	2. The Second Coming

A/N: My opinion of my first look at Miranda Lawson's profile picture on Mass Effect Wiki is stated below. The power generation issue of nanolathing will be explained in more detail.

Also, RahXephon recently made it perfectly clear to me that I have a bit of a Mary Sue phenomenon in my writing and slight lack of characterization on non-primary characters. The advice has been noted and steps will be taken, in fact, I will most likely go back and re-write the fics at some point in the future, but for now…

The new LOKI looks very similar to the Novus Ohm Robot (images (dot) wikia (dot) com/universeatwar/images/2/28/Novus_) but with the original ME 2 LOKI's head lights and face. Also, it only has one arm gun here.

* * *

Chapter 2: The Second Coming

_The Migrant Fleet, January 19, 3869_

Tali had just finished her weekly shower, knowing perfectly well that it was probably due to her rank and "hero" status that she didn't have bi-weekly showers… _a status John gave me, his life being the price_ she thought bitterly. On the Normandy, she was initially unused to the incredible lavishness of the quarters and common areas, including the unlimited shower water and other things. The thing that had surprised her most once it had sunk in was the sheer amount of _space_ available. In the Migrant Fleet, a ship of that size would have held at least four hundred Quarians in its internal spaces; the Normandy had had a crew of ten, just like almost all manned Coalition warships. It offered plenty of chances to socialize, and the people were friendly, unlike almost any other non-Quarian vessel she'd ever been on, where she'd been regarded with suspicion just for being Quarian.

She'd just finished donning her helmet and preparing for bed when she noted the blinking comm. request with the attached signature of James Shepard. She drew up her holo-console and tapped the appropriate commands to establish the link. "Hello, James, is there something you wanted to talk to me about?"

"Yes, Tali, I asked Mom" a mental image of the black-haired, youthful woman with a penchant for video games and somewhat old-fashioned (by Cybran standards) taste in, well, everything, floated unbidden into Tali's mind "about YMIRs."

* * *

FLASHBACK

"Hannah Shepard here, what is it, Commander James Shepard?" The terse reply from the other end of the connection asked with notable irritation.

James bit his lip nervously, Hannah Shepard was all too famous for tearing you a new one if you caught her at a really bad time, before replying "I would like to inquire about YMIR mechs, ma'am."

"YMIRs? Did the Codex not tell you enough?" Hannah Shepard was annoyed, since she had just come back from another training session with some of the Commanders currently available for a match-up. In the free-for-all, they'd tried, after a short time, to team up on her, but by that point she had already crushed five of the eleven other Commanders operating in the area. It had taken a while, but eventually through her strong offensive abilities, she managed to snipe three other Commanders using Revenant Strategic Bombers in the simulator. Finally, she eliminated the last three, despite a Yolona Oss hitting her initial base, with a wave of Monkeylords and Loyalists, using Geminis to provide air cover while they charged onto the beachhead. Galaxy-class Battlecruisers and Summit-class battleships had provided shore bombardment fire in the long campaign, lasting twenty-seven hours from the start of the simulation on a full-scale scenario (which meant long travel times). After soundly crushing the eleven Commanders that came closest to the Elite Four's rankings by herself, though of course it wasn't an alliance match, she was both satisfied that she'd held onto her ranking, and somewhat tired.

"Well, I need to know how tough they are; could you kill one with a pair of Electron Grenades and a shotgun?"

Hannah Shepard frowned as she drew on her military knowledge and experience, and of course her groundside training "No way can two Electron Grenades wreck a YMIR, three couldn't do it with full shields."

"Are you sure, mom? I mean, Tali managed to rig two Grenades up to a pair of YMIRs, and afterward, she'd only required one Grenade each and some shotgun blasts to take them out."

"You can't sneak up on a YMIR enough to plant a grenade on it, that's for sure, believe me, I tried once and it freaking HURT." Hannah winced to emphasize her point "Unless… I believe the things were on standby, no? That way their radar wouldn't pick her cloaked self up." Coalition radar wasn't just radar, if it was, then Coalition units would be undetectable due to the standard passive stealth systems on all of them.

"I'm not sure; Tali never said anything about that. She just said she snuck up on them while they were standing around doing nothing."

"They were probably on standby then, you should do her a favour and call her before she tries anything dumb like that again, it's not good for her health…" She shifted her shoulders and something popped. "Remember your mission, maintain stealth, and keep covering the Migrant Fleet from pirates and slavers."

"Understood, ma'am, orders received." James nodded.

"Good luck, Commander, Hannah Shepard out." Once her son's face had faded from the holo-screen, Hannah put on some music from the late twentieth century and began her physical exercise regimen.

END FLASHBACK

* * *

"So, the conclusion was that those mechs must have been on standby, Tali, don't try it again, YMIRs are dangerous opponents to all groundside infantry, flying helps, but the Gauss Rifle can still reach you. And if you get too close, they can melee quite hard, be careful."

Tali nodded, making a mental note to tell her squad about it, if it was a danger to her, it would utterly rip them to pieces "Got it, James, is there anything else?"

"Not really, unless you have something you'd like to talk about? How's the Fleet these days?"

"Same old, same old, still as crowded as ever…" She shrugged "By the way, I wanted to ask you about your earlier statement, I'd say the Citadel does have enough power generation to power nanolathes, right? All you need is arrayed fusion generators?"

"It's not quite that simple, a good storage form of mass is needed, and the really brutal, energy-consuming part of nanolathing is the fact that it's not really huge on details unless you're using the energy-matter conversion part, and if you don't have enough energy for THAT the lathe will either stall, move glacially slowly or produce a non-functioning product. Also, the Citadel seems to find it more economical to just build from mined materials, humanity was limited to a few systems for a long time, so we had to improvise."

"But that… that's an immense amount of energy!" Tali said almost in awe of how much energy was required to use a nanolathe on a large scale.

"Indeed, the only reason the Citadel's form of nanolathing, using omni-gel works is that it simply moulds matter as opposed to dissolving it here and reassembling it there. That doesn't require nearly as much energy, and since omni-gel's contents and the composition of most military materials are pretty much the same anyway, it works, but they've got a long way to go before they can build tanks or aircraft from mass in the field."

"Wow, James…" she trailed off with a rather long, drawn-out noise.

"Tali, are you yawning?" It had sounded very much like a human yawn.

"Yes, I should probably get to sleep, shouldn't I?"

"I guess so, Tali, talk later, I want to talk about quantum reactors and mass effect matrix stabilization with you sometime, that alright?

"Alright, James, talk later, I'm going to bed."

"I should probably get to sleep too, still got work tomorrow."

"Goodnight, James." Tali curled up on her bed's hard surface, she'd removed the mattress of as she didn't need it, sleeping in her comfortable Aeon Medium Armour to save armour locker space. Said mattress had gone out to another who needed it, as was the way with possessions on the Fleet.

"Goodnight, Tali." James said sleepily, before cutting the connection and wrapping his blanket (to some, duvet plus sheets) a little tighter about himself as he burrowed slightly into the pillow of his large bed.

* * *

_Lazarus Station, High Orbit over Procyon, December 11, 3870_

The first thing John Shepard thought of was the same thing he last thought of. _Liara… Liara are you there? What's happened to me? Liara?_

The first thing John Shepard noted, on the other hand, was the twin sea-green eyes above him, then his eyes moved down the woman's face past full, pink lips and smooth white skin. _Huh, not ugly, but paler than your average ghost and reminds me more of Michael Jackson with that makeup than anything else, decent tits though._ He thought before mentally frowning: _Since when did I notice stuff like that on first sight?_

"He's waking up!" a male voice exclaimed in surprise as John Shepard felt awareness slowly trickling to him as if after a long sleep. The next thing he noticed was the pain, the pain that was all over him, inside him, it felt as if bits of his flesh were peeling off and shattering.

"Damn it Wilson!" the woman hovering over him hissed at something out of his sight "Give him another shot!"

John felt some sort of sedative entering his bloodstream, but he fought it as best he could from his current position, unable to move. "It's not working!" the male voice shouted.

"Double the dose, give him _another_ shot!" the black-haired woman turned and yelled at the man, giving Shepard, whose head had turned toward her, a good view of her butt _Hmm, not bad, but for the record, I prefer blue._ He felt himself slipping away once more and mentally screamed _Liara, Help!_ It wasn't a considered reaction, merely a primal response of calling for one's mate when in danger or the unknown, and it was cut short by the sedatives finally taking effect and John Shepard slumping to the operation table nearly as boneless as he'd been when he'd arrived two years ago.

* * *

_Ilium, December 11, 3870_

She was different from two years ago, very much different, her face had gotten slimmer, losing some of the baby fat, and here eyes were decidedly wiser. She was less naïve than before, _though that wasn't saying much_, she thought with a mental eye-roll as she sifted through mountains of data. Her skin had lightened slightly to more of a cool sky blue than the warm cobalt it had been before, and her figure had become even more pronounced. She wasn't sure what had caused

_Liara, Liara are you there? What's happened to me? Liara?_ Liara T'Soni, now a renowned information broker, frowned while looking through some recently acquired files, she used her biotics for a moment to clean out her hearing canals of what would in humans be called earwax before listening again. That had sounded almost disturbingly like John Shepard, but he was dead… unless that reconstruction thing had worked, which Liara doubted.

After waiting for a short while, another message reached her mind, seemingly a scream for help, though it wasn't much louder than the first message _Liara, Help!_

The young Asari froze, then shook her head "Hallucinating on the job again, eh, Liara?" She chuckled to herself as she rubbed her eyes for a moment before resuming her labour.

* * *

_Lazarus Station, High Orbit over Procyon, December 24, 3870_

"Shepard, Shepard, get up!" the woman's voice from before cut through the background alarms of the station, making Shepard acutely aware of the pain throughout his body.

Shepard sent the most stereotypical response he could "Five more minutes, mom!" It stung annoying to breathe.

"We don't have five minutes, Shepard, the facility is under attack and you need to get your ass over to that locker, get yourself some armour and a gun!"

"Alright, I'm getting up." He yanked the IV tubes attached to his arm out, knowing through his neural lace uplink that they weren't critical at the moment. They stung but it was nothing compared to the threat of an attack on the facility, he walked over to the locker, feeling like his muscles had been unused for far too long and as if his body was not his own. "What's with the sting?"

"We haven't had a chance to fully repair your scars from the reconstruction yet, but the facility is under attack and you need to get that armour on!"

"Oh come on, only Civilian Armour?" He donned it anyways, it was better than an open-backed hospital gown, then grabbed the Gauss Pistol and Laser SMG from the weapons holsters of the armour "What next?"

"The door's about to blow, take cover quickly! Your shields aren't charged yet!" It wasn't like it would do much to his structural fields, but it was good practice, so Shepard dove behind a piece of cover anyway before said door exploded.

"What's your name, miss?"

"Miranda Lawson, commanding officer of this facility, get through the next two rooms, and yes, vault over that thing, I want to make sure you're a hundred percent functional."

Shepard did as ordered, noting the hostile on his HUD before he even went past the just-overloaded door "You know, this would be a lot more convenient if you'd gotten me some proper armour with a Quantum Propulsion Pack… what the hell is that thing?" A few good bursts of laser fire and a couple Gauss munitions put the sparking Mech flat on its back on the floor, but not before it had a chance to make Shepard's over-shield actually ripple and register a modicum of damage. "Whoa, the weapon actually wasn't that bad…"

"That's a LOKI, one of the goods Raynor's Raiders have been selling in more recent times, it's got an arm plasma blaster, and that's about it for its weapons. The YMIRs, on the other hand, are considerably tougher and more powerful, watch out for those. The station's defences have been hacked and are turning against us, be careful, Shepard."

"Hmm, still pretty weak." Shepard kicked it a few times with an armoured foot. "I'm headed upstairs, Miranda, that alright?"

"Sounds right… I'm detecting more mechs coming toward you; you should see them on your HUD radar and view about now. Take them out Shepard; they're only LOKIs after all."

Shepard took the first Mech down, and knocked down its compatriots, with a hard punch to the face followed by a kick to the chest, knocking it into the others that followed. He shot the mech while it and its shields were down from the hard melee hit, blasting its head off with a couple well-placed rounds before crushing its compatriots, noting how painfully close his over-shield came to the 50% mark before the five mechs died and stopped firing their plasma blasters at him. Shepard came to a long walkway overlooking a mess area where people were being gunned down by a large, bulky mech, "That's a YMIR, isn't it?" he noted his shields slowly refilling

"Yep, hey, there's a ULPA someone's dropped, grab it, there's another group of LOKIs incoming." Miranda sighed "Too bad they took us so much by surprise we couldn't even get to the armour lockers, or that thing would be down already."

"Did they… good, Civilian Armour has grenades now." It was only one Electron Grenade, but it was enough to paper the walls with LOKI parts when the mechs tried to rush him. Once his shields were back up to full, Shepard shattered the window with a volley of ULPA rounds, firing on the YMIR while lobbing another grenade at the large machine.

The return rocket caught Shepard's shields and flung him back with a concussive force he didn't expect and which Civilian Armour wasn't designed to completely dampen anyway. The Gauss Rifle rounds, perhaps due to the rocket throwing him out of the way, unlike a Marine Armour which would have simply dampened the inertia and stayed more or less in place, missed, which was a relief, since his over-shield had lost nearly half its strength from that one hit "Wow, these things are tougher than I thought considering they're mostly Koprulu tech…" He whistled as he picked himself up. The impact with the far wall hadn't been debilitating for one reason only, the impact dampening his armour provided. Sure, Civilian Armour couldn't fly, but it was very difficult to fall or hit an obstacle hard enough to die.

John Shepard dragged himself to the edge of the walkway, to the tall window, and fired off a few more rounds at the YMIR before being forced to roll aside to dodge another rocket. He chucked another Electron Grenade toward the mech then ducked under another incoming rocket that made the hairs on the back of his head raise with its proximity. John looked up just in time to see the mech shoot the grenade in mid-air with its Gauss Rifle, having gotten lucky and setting off the EMP and explosive device before it could be hit. "Shepard, we don't have much time, get to the shuttles, quickly!"

"If my mini map's right, the route to the shuttles is through that mech, and I ain't about to try charging that with this flimsy Civilian Armour!" Shepard shouted back over the roar of another rocket detonating behind him and shrapnel tinkling off his over-shield, and of course the constant rattle of the YMIR's Gauss Rifle. "Damn, that Gauss Rifle's good…" it was in fact chipping slowly away at his shields, and finally, just before the over-shield collapsed, a small ding announced the completion of lathing for yet another Electron Grenade.

Shepard yanked the pin with his teeth and lobbed it under mess table the mech was propping up for cover, passing it between the table's two legs that were still on the floor. The grenade rolled to a stop between the Mech's legs with a clink of metal on metal. The large machine looked down, optics widening almost comically, then tried to throw itself aside out of the blast that tore away its remaining shield power in one blast and left scorch marks on its slightly sparking body.

While the machine was disabled from the EMP, Shepard tore into its plating with his ULPA, blasting pieces away slowly, trying to bore through to its core systems. Sadly, the machine came back to life before he could kill it, and held up the mess table again to at least dampen the impacts of the Ultra-Light Phasic Autogun. The table heated up from the plasma shots and the Mech's position began to become untenable as Shepard bombarded it with more grenades and Phasic bolts. It did its best, returning fire with its rocket launcher and Gauss Rifle, but in the end, a single Phasic bolt slipped through the Mech's cover and smashed its right knee. The machine went down on that knee, holding itself up with its Gauss Rifle arm while still firing at Shepard with its Rocket Launcher.

Another Electron Grenade slipped through its rapidly evaporating cover and the Mech jerked as electricity arced through its body, before it fell to the ground in a thump that rang of finality, smoke rising from its once smooth grey chassis. John Shepard jumped down from his walkway and ran past the mech, which his HUD had designated neutralized, toward the door on the other side of the mess hall…

…And bounced off said door when another rocket from the dying YMIR caught him in the back. He turned, quite pissed off, and was about to open fire when the machine finally went limp, rocket arm falling to the ground. With a shrug rolled another Electron Grenade under it anyways, and then scrammed before the YMIR's body serve as a fragmentation weapon. He broke into the next room, which was empty but for a console. "Miranda? Miranda are you there?" There was only static, so John decided to loot the wall safe as per his usual doctrine, besides, it wasn't as if the station was at risk of core overload anytime soon.

When the safe was finally bypassed, Shepard gaped in indignation "975 Citadel Credits? How poor can they get to put this in a wall safe?" He scooped it all up anyways, then accessed the records, frowning at the mention of rebuilding him. _Theoretically it shouldn't be difficult with a Cybran, but that would need to mean I'd actually come back from the dead… am I still me inside? No, that's too complicated to think about right now, I should focus on getting off the station._

"Go… stairs, Shepard." The static had resolved into a few words from Miranda.

"Alright… up the stairs, I'm guessing." John came to a room with two walkways, him emerging onto one walkway where a man wearing Seraphim Medium Armour was behind some cover while two YMIRs and some LOKIs kept him suppressed while his shields were regenerating. Several fallen LOKIs strewn about the floor far below and slumped over various consoles and railings on the other walkway made John's assessment of the man go from "useless" to "not bad, considering there are two YMIRs and he still managed a good number of kills."

"Shepard, what the… what are you doing up and about? I though you were still a work in progress?" The man was highlighted as Jacob Taylor on the squad panel of the HUD and his current status was uploaded into the small bars next to and under his name in quick order.

"Heh, well apparently the Doc's been trying to bring me back to life over the last few years, and I guess he more or less succeeded." Shepard gestured toward his face, then slapped his forehead, knowing the face plate prevented Jacob from seeing anything of his now far more extensive circuitry. He was one of the few Cybrans with very little in the way of that before, but now that he'd seen some of the logs, and seen his reflection, he had a bad feeling about looking in a bathroom mirror.

"Well, things must be going worse than I'd thought if Miranda woke you up." The man commented, still hidden behind the massive piece of pillar top he was hiding behind "I'll fill you in after we deal with these boys, sadly I don't have an Infantry Nanodart Launcher, or those things would be scrap already, my heavy's a Temporal Fizz Launcher, you got anything better?"

"ULPA, I'm afraid.

"Damn, I was hoping for a Tomcat Autogun or Light Plasma Cannon… I guess we'll have to make do with our guns and biotics."

"Biotics? Hmm, I'll distract them, you see if you can't give that YMIR a good yank and knock down those two LOKIs kneeling in front of it." The two LOKIs were on one knee each, bracing their weapons against the railing for better accuracy, right up until the YMIR, to get better balance from the biotic pull, managed to give both of them a hard punch to the back of their heads at the same time, causing both to be stunned momentarily and weakening their shields enough that two ULPA shots blasted the LOKIs apart.

The other YMIR's reaction was slowed down slightly by the Temporal Fizz Launcher's splash and slowdown effect from Jacob, so its rocket missed Shepard's over-shield bubble, which was not extended for area coverage, and thus able to dodge the bullet, so to speak. Of course, Gauss Rifle and plasma blaster fire still ricocheted off or were absorbed by the shields, but they only took off small bits at a time, unlike the rockets.

When Jacob popped up again to coordinate his fire with John on the remaining LOKIs, however, he was met with two rockets to the face "damn that stung" the Marine whistled as he kept firing on the LOKIs, strafing to the right to throw off the Gauss and Plasma blaster fire for a moment, noting his over-shields had dropped to around half. The next two rocket hits popped his over-shield and he ducked down before his personal shield could take more damage, having, with Shepard's help, eliminated the remaining LOKIs, leaving only the YMIRs

"What do you say we just make a run for it?" Shepard suggested, noting the YMIRs were trapped on the walkway, both doors being locked on either side of them. It would take a while for them to breach such a door.

"Heh, sounds like music to my ears." Jacob snorted as their cover began to crumble from a few too many rockets. After all, the station's internal structural fields seem to have been disengaged ever since the firefight began, or doors would have no chance whatsoever of exploding like they had in the med bay.

"So, rush that door on the count of three?" John pointed at the door in question, which began opening after he hacked it.

"Sure, run and gun?"

"Yes, One, Two, THREE!" The two Marines ran for the door, firing one-handed at the other walkway, a pair of explosions behind them causing them to stumble slightly before righting themselves and darting through the opened door to a blissfully mech-free hallway, the doors closing behind them, but not before another pair of rockets streaked through.

Jacob picked himself up first, his armour being better at dampening kinetic hits and concussive force "Well, Shepard, you had questions?"

John had gotten up by this point "Yeah, so, what exactly happened to me? The files didn't have any pictures."

"Well after I saw you being brought in I decided to call in sick when Miranda next held a barbeque lunch, about a month after you being brought in. She managed to… convince me to attend." That was a good memory… "But I left to throw up right after I saw her take out the prepared hamburgers from the fridge." They'd borne way too much resemblance to Shepard's remains for Jacob to keep his lunch in. Sure, Coalition Marines were inured to the results of war, and Coalition people in general were quite used to massive casualty counts, especially civilian casualty counts, but contemplating reanimating something that looked like poorly ground hamburger was a bit much even for Coalition Marines, who regularly experienced extreme gore.

"Why was that? Was she a REALLY bad cook?" They were moving steadily toward the shuttle bay along the long, winding hallway. "And tell me the truth, the whole truth."

"You sure? Okay, fine, I threw up because it looked like what we were trying to bring back to life way too much, that's why. When we brought you in, you were meat, tubes, and mush, anywhere else they would have either stuck you in a coffin or a food processor."

There was a long pause "I hope you don't mind my lack of comment." The Cybran said after a shudder.

"Dude, if someone told me I was a puddle of badly butchered hamburger meat at one point I'd be pretty freaked out, I'm surprised you haven't thrown up yet." the black man of UEF background shrugged.

"Well, it'll probably take a while to soak in… and right now, we need to focus on the mission. Best thing ever about being Cybran, you can suppress some emotions for at least a while, until the current mission is over and done with, but afterward… it hits you even harder… let's get this job over with. Why are the security mechs shooting at us?"

"How should I know? I was catching some shut-eye when BAM there's a bunch of YMIR rocket explosions and everything went straight to hell, I'm guessing it's from the inside though, you'd need top access to the station's mechs."

"Hmm, what's Miranda's job and what's yours?"

"I'm theoretically second-in-command but in reality I'm just the security guy here, Miranda Lawson's the top-ranking officer of the station. Do you still have contact with her? I lost contact after some explosions and gunfire."

"My channel just dissolved in static… I don't know what happened and I'm not sure I want to." Shepard shrugged as they approached the next doorway. He noted the worried frown that appeared on Jacob's optics. _Friends, maybe more, from his concern over her and her complete neglect of mentioning him it is either one-sided or lopsided if there's anything more._ Shepard's brain told him, analyzing the man's behaviour.

"We need to get to the shuttles, but the quickest way depends on where the mechs are thickest… wait, I'm getting a signal." The man's yellow helmet facial optics frowned, "Wilson… I'm over here in D-wing with Shepard…" a pause, then "Roger, Wilson, stay on the channel." Jacob cut the transmission from his end "Wilson asks us to come help him; he's pointed out a safe route. I'm uploading the nav-points to you now." Said nav-points appeared on Shepard's HUD.

"Hmm… he's the chief med-tech, isn't he?"

"Yep, and apparently he's in Server Room B, you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"That he might know who did this, possibly himself? Yeah, that's what I'm thinking… watched too many spy movies in my youth, after all."

They moved toward the next nav-point, noting the red hostile contacts on their HUD radars "Wilson, would you mind NOT leading us into crowds of enemies?" Shepard asked as they opened fire on some patrolling groups of LOKIs.

"Sorry, I'll try to see what I can do from here…"

* * *

"How many?" Shepard asked, it was the final stretch until Server Room B, and it was a flat, featureless walkway with two large galleries over it, one on either side, that the mechs could shoot down from.

"At least five YMIRs, and probably three times that many LOKIs, they could keep us pinned here indefinitely." Jacob replied, shaking his head regretfully.

"Our armour can probably handle it if I hitchhike on you and you use your Quantum Propulsion pack to cover the distance." Shepard looked between the long horizontal stretch of the long hallway, which could work as a sort of docking bay at times, and Jacob shrewdly.

"You sure? Well, I guess, hop on." Jacob crouched and let Shepard secure himself on the black man's back first "For the record, Commander, after you get your own Marine Armour, I am not doing this again."

"Duly noted, now we should probably get moving… open the door."

Having plotted the course already, Jacob nodded, tapping the relevant commands on his chest-projected holo-console "hold ONNNNNNNNNN!" He shouted just before the doors slammed open and they accelerated toward the far wall and the set of doors there.

The YMIRs had been more or less ready for them, a volley of rockets slamming into their over-shields, almost throwing Shepard off with the concussive force. Jacob leaned over while still flying and grabbed the other man by the gauntlet just in time before the volley of six rockets could throw him completely off, both their over-shields having popped already. Gauss Rifle fire and Plasma Blaster pulses rained down on them, wearing away at their shields as Jacob's flight neared the far set of doors. By this point Shepard had climbed back onto Jacob's armour's back and both men were screaming at the top of their lungs as they held tight. Shepard's arms were wrapped around Jacob's neck, braced on the outside against the shoulder/forearm towers present on all Seraphim Medium and Heavy Armours, while Jacob was holding onto the Commander's arms while they flew, screamed, and kept one eye each on the shield meters as they came dangerously close to fifty percent capacity.

A second volley of YMIR rocket fire intercepted the screaming fliers before they could enter the second doorway, completely shattering their shields and scorching their armour even though the structural fields deflected most of the damage and spread the rest over the entire armoured surface. The shield alarms were blaring in both men's helmets, but they knew that staying longer would be suicide, and the course they had plotted was the fastest possible, so they simply kept screaming silently, having run out of breath to actually make sound.

Miraculously, they made it through the blast doors that thudded closed after them before the third volley of YMIR rocket fire could hit them and before their structural fields were completely worn down by Gauss and Plasma fire. They smashed into the wall at full burn, tumbling to the ground and both breathing heavily… "Did… did you always pull that sort of mad stunt back on the Saren hunt?" Jacob gasped out, picking himself back up and shaking his head as if to clear it.

"No, I always made sure at least one squad member had an Infantry Nanodart Launcher, usually me." Shepard said, also peeling himself off the ground and standing back up "How's your armour?"

"That's good to know, my armour's in need of some time for self-repairs and shield regeneration, should be just a moment though…"

"Well we'll take a moment, figure we've earned it."Shepard basically stood there and let his armour slowly self-repair.

Jacob frowned "What about Wilson?"

"If we try helping him right now and meet a YMIR or even a good group of LOKIs, we're dead, dead people can't help anybody." Shepard stated matter-of-factly. "There's only one person I'd go after in our current state, and that person sure isn't Wilson."

"Guess you're right, one K-12 rocket after a few good Gauss Rifle rounds on me and I'd be worse than you when you first came in, and my armour's better off than yours right now." Jacob froze "Oh, sorry."

"Nah, don't worry, the facts haven't set in completely yet, so I'm fine with joking around about it while we sit around waiting for our armour to firm up again. I do believe you'll be worse off indeed, after all, from what you said, I may have been a freezer-burnt, lightly crisped, oozing pile of badly minced hamburger meat when I first came in, but I was at least more or less in one piece, right? A good K-12 to either of us right now and they won't find enough to have another Lazarus Project."

"Yeah…" They waited in silence until their Structural Fields, Shields and Over-Shields were all in the green before moving on, still recharging/repairing as they walked toward the server room. The path here was suspiciously devoid of mechs, and so it was that the two Marines found themselves standing on either side of the doorway, holding their SMGs instead of heavy weapons. Shepard had his Laser SMG and Gauss Pistol, standard issue for all Civilian Armours, and Jacob with Phasic and Gauss SMGs, since the latter, unlike Laser SMGs, could toggle explosive rounds and a higher damage output despite some recoil. "So, on three?"

"Yes sir."

"Alright, you take point… three." He kicked the door and Jacob swung in, settling into a kneel with his weapons held close to his body for easier traversing and scanning for any targets that could be a threat, for example the orange contact on their HUD radars earlier. Shepard was right behind him, pointing his weapons over Jacob's head as he looked around the room from his higher vantage point.

"Hey, over here! Bastards got me in the leg!" The contact went to greenish-yellow as the armour identified the source of the voice as Doctor Wilson. Shepard and Jacob shared a look, there were no mechs and no parts in the room, only Wilson, and a Gauss pistol. It was well known that Gauss infantry weapons could fire either penetrators or explosive rounds, and that no functional mech would leave a target still alive.

"You were there when I woke up the first time, weren't you?" Shepard recognized the man after one good look at his face.

"Yes, I was, Ow, watch it!" Jacob had callously torn the man's pant leg off, revealing a clean entry wound, and, after brusquely flipping it over, a clean exit wound. He and Shepard exchanged a look, both knowing perfectly well this was probably self-inflicted, it had all the symptoms, no permanent damage, no explosive round, no nearby enemies or enemy remains "do you guys have any medi-gel on you?"

"Yeah, here." Jacob dispensed some to the man, and his suit administered it where it was needed. The bleeding stopped and the wound closed up before their eyes, and Wilson got back up shakily, testing his weight on the leg.

"Thank you… never thought you'd save y life, guess that makes us even now." Having muted their external speakers, Shepard and Jacob shared a snort and eye-roll as the man rambled on "Thought I could shut down the damned mechs, but… whoever did this was an expert, fried the whole damned system, no overrides left."

"Did we ask what you were up to? Why are you even here, you're supposed to be in the Bio department." Jacob said through his speakers before mouthing to Shepard over their visual transmission "He's probably the turncoat; let's toy with him first…"

"Jacob, I thought your hearing was alright? I was trying to shut the mechs down, besides, I was shot, how do you explain that?" _Yep, definitely the turncoat._ Both Marines thought.

"I don't care who set who up, those mechs are shooting at all of use, we'll sort this out later, our priority right now is to get to the evac shuttles."

"We need to find Miranda first though, can't just leave her here…" Jacob trailed off at Shepard's knowing grin. _Yep, he's definitely got more than simple friendly feelings for her alright, can't really blame him, if I didn't belong to Liara already I suppose she wouldn't be such a horrible second choice._

"Forget about her, she's in D wing, the mechs were all over that area, there's no way she could have made it." Wilson waved dismissively.

"A bunch of lousy mechs won't do shit to Miranda, she's fine!" Jacob prodded the man in the chest with an armoured finger, snarling. Shepard had to hold in a chuckle, this was almost like the one time Wrex had been rude to Ash and Kaidan had stood in the Krogan's shadow and poked him in the chest while lecturing him. Wrex had been impressed enough by the display of "a quad" to actually explain his comment to the Lieutenant, who was a good two feet shorter than him when he stood at full height.

"Then where is she? Why haven't we heard from her? She's either dead or she's the traitor!"

Shepard snorted "Why'd she wake me up and warn me then?" they stepped back out into the hallway.

Wilson shrugged "So maybe she isn't a traitor, but still, we're here, and she isn't. We gotta move, the shuttle bay's that…" He pointed, and trailed off at the appearance of more LOKI Mechs. "Shit, hey, those crates…" the man fumbled with his omni-tool before deploying an overload pulse that took out the crates marked "Flammable" and some of the mechs.

"Not bad for a doctor, Wilson, let's move."

* * *

Shepard had settled into his old, comfortable routine of looting corpses, raiding wall safes, and treating life like it was a role-playing game without saving and reloading, and with only one life. It was a coping mechanism all Coalition Marines were taught to help reduce combat stress.

"We're close, the shuttle bay's right over here…" Wilson opened the door to reveal a woman also dressed in Seraphim Medium Armour minus helmet, which was tucked under her arm. Shepard recognized the woman as Miranda Lawson from the logs he'd come across. "Miranda? But you're…"

One Phasic Pistol round through the man's head, causing it to explode like an overripe watermelon, later, the woman cocked her head to one side. "Dead?" She asked the corpse with a raised eyebrow.

"What are you doing?" Jacob had a pretty good idea, but he needed to be sure.

"My job, Wilson betrayed us all he betrayed the Cybran Nation, all in the name of credits…" Miranda kicked the corpse.

"Heh, always thought that leg wound was self-inflicted." Shepard gave the body a couple extra shots, there was no need to conserve ammo seeing as his armour's quantum core provided unlimited energy (though limited output over time). "You're the director of the Lazarus project, aren't you?"

"Yes, I put two years of my life into this, into you."

"What does Brackman want me to do?"

"Maybe you should ask the good Doctor when you guys talk, let's get on the shuttle."

"Where are we going?"

"Capital CGC, Procyon, Doc thinks it's too risky to talk to you through even encrypted comms here."

Shepard tapped his foot "Still not making me trust you…"

Miranda Lawson was growing impatient with the obstinate Commander "This is the only shuttle on the station right now, it'll take a while before the station can be re-captured and more shuttled docked from the outside, you want to stay with the mechs? Feel free."

"Hmm, kinda convenient you turn up here though, where's everyone else?"

"Either dead or nearly so, I wouldn't be too concerned, this whole project was to bring you back, they knew the risks when they signed up for high-end research projects, like every Cybran does." Miranda's response was decidedly more UEF than Cybran, believable from the lack of facial circuitry. "I'll call in reinforcements if you insist, but as I said it'll take a while before they can bore down the structural fields enough to hack into the station or capture it with engineers."

"Alright, I guess, let's get moving. I've had enough of this station to last n lifetimes."

"In your case, n equals two." Jacob quipped, earning an eye-roll from Miranda as they entered the shuttle and plotted the course.

* * *

"Before you talk with the Doc, we need to as some questions to evaluate your condition." Miranda started.

Jacob, who was checking his Gauss SMG, snorted "Shepard took down those mechs no problem considering the sorry state of his equipment, that's gotta be something…"

"It's been two years since he died, Doc needs to make sure he's talking to someone sane and with intact personality and memories, ask the questions, Jacob." Miranda said firmly.

"This is a waste of time, I feel fine, though with a bit more facial circuitry than before."

"The sooner we start the sooner we can get this over with. Jacob, start with personal history." She gestured with a dark blue armoured finger.

"Okay, records show you're one of the sons of Hannah Shepard, renowned ACU pilot, grew up in a healthy, loving environment with your twin brother James. You enlisted and won recognition fighting Batarians during the Skyllian Blitz, first on Mindoir, then Akuze happened, and finally you ended up on Elysium, what do you remember of it?"

"I remember mustering a squad of civilian volunteers to hold the highway, and beating back a lot of Batarian attack waves. Also, I remember killing them while making my way toward the central square of that town on Mindoir with my brother."

Jacob looked toward his compatriot "You satisfied, Miranda?"

The woman sat down next to Jacob, across from Shepard "Let's try something more recent, Virmire, where you destroyed Saren's cloning facility, what happened?"

"Ashley Williams used the SCU the Normandy carried to construct a base and launch a diversionary attack into the front of Saren's base with a squad of Ilshavoh Assault Bots and Athanah Mobile Shield Generators while me, Wrex, Tali, Liara and Garrus infiltrated the back to find out what Saren was up to and to get Saren's Genophage data."

"Hmm, good, well, after the 3rd and 4th Hunter Squadrons saved the Citadel, what happened?"

"We got offered a Council seat and I recommended Captain Anderson for the position, though he got bumped up to Admiral immediately before his inauguration."

"Excellent, but there are other tests we probably should do…"

"Come on, Miranda, enough quizzes already, the memories are there and I can vouch for Shepard's combat and tactical skills personally."

* * *

_Central Gate Complex, Procyon, December 24, 3870_

"Hello, my child, it is good to see you up and about once more. We have dealt with several negligible intrusions to our territory while you were… down, but this was a first in terms of a major security breach… not surprising, considering what you, I, and the top levels of command in the Coalition know. We have tried to take every precaution, but still, thing happen, and we must deal with them."

"So, what do we know?"

"We all know that one man, one very specific man, is all that stands between us and one of the greatest threats to our survival since the Seraphim Imperium's invasion."

"The Reapers, right?"

"It is good to see your memory has not diminished, very good indeed, even my own has begun to dull somewhat from over a thousand years' worth of data." Brackman's holographic self looked off into space for a brief moment before refocusing on Shepard "WE brought you back because we are at war, a war the Coalition has been powerless to affect."

"How could that be? Our fleets could be scrambled and amassed within days to take on and take down any known potential enemy…"

"Yes, however, we don't have any intel on what's been happening, entire colonies have been disappearing off the fringes of UEF Space, in the rim-ward Terminus Systems." Brackman highlighted the area on the galactic map. "Nothing is out of place, but all the people are gone. Investigations have turned up nothing. And before you ask, the colonies belong to those who dislike the Coalition in the UEF and are generally only equipped with Citadel-level tech, even the security footage is erased… We could not find anything, my child."

"Why are they focusing only there if their goal is to harvest all life in the galaxy?"

"Hundreds of thousands have gone missing, my child, and still the remaining colonies, oblivious to what happened to the others, prefer to think it is the Coalition attacking and abducting them than to believe that something out there is gunning for them." Brackman shook his head sadly "Tensions are growing between the Citadel and us after we commissioned several new classes of warships in preparation for fighting the Reapers, so we have not risked sending entire battle fleets into the area yet… we, unlike everyone else, DON'T want to take over the whole galaxy. Sadly, everyone else thinks we do want to, and technically, we could pull it off, though the horrendous collateral of our way of war prevents us from voluntarily instigating a war with races who have never truly experienced it…"

"Huh, what about our Council seat? I'm already pretty sceptical about my resurrection, is this body even human or is it bio-synthetic fusion like Dostya's been suggesting for you for a while."

Brackman frowned "Please do not mention that, my child, your body is human, as much as a Cybran can be, also, our Council seat doesn't ensure, as Dostya referred to it, 'ape shit', it is mostly a concession to appease us after our demonstration of power. Back to the topic at hand, my child, the latest colony to be abducted, Freedom's Progress, is still fresh, we cannot afford sending in a large marine contingent to investigate, but perhaps you, Miranda and Jacob could do it. They are two of the best, most reliable agents you'll find, John, and the shuttle is already ready, I assume you'll want your old selection of weapons and Cybran Heavy Armour?"

"Yes, if you don't mind."

"Not a problem, my child, not a problem, weapons technology has not moved forward very much, despite increasing in power, structural fields and shields have too, and so the balance is as you left it, John." The soothing, sagely voice intoned. "Good luck, my child, good luck."

* * *

A/N: I hope I made things a bit more reasonable since the Coalition given one week to prepare could theoretically nanolathe enough Ship Gantries and warships to swamp an entire sector of space. Now the potential for war with the Citadel Races is what prevents them from sending an army. I also hope I explained the power sources vs. nanolathing thing.


	3. The Price Of Progress

A/N: Wilson's role will be revealed in good time, as for one-village-idiot's question "what the heck is Wilson?" He is a male human :), also, RahXephon was a reviewer who was rather blunt and heavy-handed in criticism, bordering on flaming, but gave good advice. (IMO Constructive Criticism = Flamer + Actual Recommendation for avoiding issues raised)

Also, I'm giving them something far more dangerous than a mere YMIR for the boss fight here.

* * *

Chapter 3: The Price of Progress

OR (Alternate Title) Freedom Isn't Free

_Freedom's Progress, December 25, 3870_

"Any specific orders, Commander?" Jacob said just before touchdown.

Shepard checked his Infantry Nanodart Launcher one last time "Just call me Shepard, focus on finding any survivors. Standard doctrine might say otherwise, but screw that, enough people have gone missing already. Let's move, keep an eye on sensors at all times."

"Aye sir." Jacob said as they exited the shuttle, sweeping the area with their eyes, weapons and sensors alike. "All clear sir."

"Okay, move that way, I'll take point." They trundled off, looking through the habitation pods and buildings for survivors, but finding no one. "I don't like this… combine it with the snow and yellow sodium lights and you have a scene from a horror game just waiting to happen." Shepard hissed to Jacob.

"I don't like this either, Shepard… hey, there's some spare parts we can salvage for credits, over to the left there." Jacob pointed, they had reached a rather large door by this point, and were picking up two hostile contacts ahead.

"Well, go pick them up, we'll keep you covered." Shepard replied, and the black Marine did as he was told, picking up the parts in his inventory. It was well known that standard Coalition Marine doctrine was to grab anything that could be remotely useful; any losses to property incurred would be reimbursed after the mission.

They opened up the door and opened fire on the two LOKI mechs standing there, gunning them down with Laser Battle Rifle, Gauss LMG and Phasic SMG fire before they could do too much damage to the squad's shields, then turned to face the next set of threats rapidly approaching them. The FENRIS mechs, though nicknamed "cyber cats" by some, were effectively shaped like a predator between a dog and cat. Red eyes glowing, they charged the squad, claws and teeth ready to tear away at their armour.

"Miranda, Jacob, hold the cats with biotics!" Shepard shouted, noting his shields slowly taking damage from the three LOKIs that had appeared with the FENRIS mechs. "Kill them first!"

The two FENRIS mechs were almost in range of their electrical discharge weapons and claws when they were abruptly flung backward, armour beginning to cave under laser fire. It took a little while, but they finally collapsed under the fire thrown at them and the team re-focused on the LOKIs, which were actually less durable than the FENRIS mechs. "Damn, those predators were pretty tough, they must be wreaking absolute havoc in Council Space if they're being marketed so widely." Shepard kicked one of the downed cyber-cats after they dispatched the three LOKIs.

"Agreed, and yes, Shepard, they are, I believe that on this mission we will have a high probability of encountering more of them in Council Space." Miranda nodded as they waited for their shields to recharge a little before moving on to the next building. "Hmm, medi-gel, Council-grade, not up to Coalition medi-gel standards, but could still fetch some money on the Council markets." She grabbed the container from the med-kit while Shepard was busy cracking the wall safe and Jacob covered the door, knowing that there were two hostile contacts outside said door.

"If there's any FENRIS mechs, hold them back with biotics and focus on them, unless we're facing a YMIR." Shepard said, swapping out his LBR for his Gauss LMG, the two soldiers nodded affirmatives and with a hand gesture they moved out, breaking down the door.

"Damn it! A YMIR and a FENRIS, like you thought, Shepard!" Jacob said through gritted teeth, noting his shield bar abruptly dropping quite a large chunk as a K-12 Punisher rocket impacted it just before Shepard stepped in front of him to absorb the YMIR's Gauss Rifle fire. Miranda was pumping Phasic rounds into the FENRIS held in mid-air by her biotics while Shepard was activating his Nanodart Launcher. Jacob's Gauss LMG was spitting rounds back at the YMIR, the guns on both sides barking hypersonic munitions toward each other. The YMIR's shields and armour were weaker than Jacob's, but its big advantage lay in the K-12 Punisher on its left arm.

That advantage was about to be nullified. Shepard's Infantry Nanodart Launcher fully activated and acquired its target. One Nanodart popped the YMIR's shields and sent it staggering sideways, still firing back defiantly, and a second later a second Nanodart tore the mech into scrap, but not before it took a bite out of Shepard's shields with its guns. "Ah, it's so good to have a trusty old INL again." Shepard sighed happily as he turned to regard Miranda and the scrap metal the FENRIS had been reduced to. With a beeping noise, the YMIR's wreckage exploded behind Shepard and Jacob, who were wondering why Miranda was standing next to a pile of scrap as opposed to where she was earlier.

"I reclaimed some more spare parts, could be useful for cash." She shrugged. Shepard blinked and then rolled his eyes. Apparently, Miranda was following typical doctrine for this sort of op almost to the letter. John was familiar with that sort of Marine, and he hoped she wasn't one of them, that would be a severe annoyance.

John frowned when his squad board shifted slightly and included Tali'Zorah as a squad member "Tali's here."

"Tali? Isn't that the Quarian you worked with on the Normandy?" Jacob asked with a frown.

"Yeah, my HUD's telling me she's just beyond that door, with a bunch of orange contacts."

"Hostile neutrals? If they aren't mechs, what could they be?" Jacob asked.

"Don't know, but let's get in there and see what's happening. I highly doubt if they haven't attacked Tali yet they'll attack us, and they probably don't have enough firepower to kill us before we kill them and save Tali anyways."

* * *

_Freedom's Progress, December 25, 3870_

Tali'Zorah vas Neema was, at best, annoyed. She had gotten sick, though thankfully the on-board medical programs of her armour took care of the worst of it, and missed a mission with her usual squad of Marines. Instead, she was stuck with this bunch of idiots. Prazza was not happy about being supplanted as squad leader on this search-and-rescue mission, and they'd had a hard time with the mechs already. The only reason no one had died yet was the fact that she'd extended her over-shield to provide cover for them and her armour's medi-gel dispensers. The former had been the reason John and James had insisted she upgrade to Aeon Medium before she left the Normandy, and the latter was only possible because no one had been hit by a plasma blaster pulse yet. The only fire the others had taken was either Gauss Rifle rounds from a YMIR they had encountered or bites from FENRIS-class mechs.

Said YMIR had been taken down through application of Sonance Grenades and Phasic Shotgun blasts, and thankfully it had focused on her instead of completely tearing apart the rest of the squad. It had been a nasty fight though, and she actually had to order everyone to hold up while her shields recharged to full capacity. The FENRIS-class mechs meant that more than once did she use the defibrillation ability of her medi-gel dispenser aka First Aid System, since the electrical discharges of the mechs' bites could stop a Krogan's hearts cold. Sadly, the idiots didn't exactly appreciate how much she was doing for them.

She noticed when her squad monitor panel on her HUD changed to include two names she didn't recognize and one she'd been expecting for a while, from what James had said before she left for the mission. It was still a shock, though, to see someone back from the dead, supposedly. Before she could think too much of it, however, the door slammed open and three Coalition Marines spread through, their weapons fanned outward and optics widened in surprise at the presence of the Quarians.

* * *

"Cybrans!" one of the Quarians, a male by the style of his visor and suit, shouted as all the enviro-suited Migrant Fleet Marines levelled their assorted assault rifles, shotguns, and SMGs at the newcomers who had the triangular red logos all over their armour. Tali, of course, did nothing of the sort, instead making a noise of armour meeting armour as she facepalmed.

"Quarians?" Miranda asked incredulously "What are Quarians doing in a human colony that's vanished?"

"We could ask you the same thing, this wasn't a Coalition colony, why are Coalition Marines here? They say that you guys are behind the abductions, trying to bring them back into your hold, is it true?" The man who'd shouted the alarm in the first place gestured about using his spare hand while Tali, recovering from her facepalm, yanked his assault rifle down toward the ground.

"Enough, Prazza!" She said coldly, before turning her white and green helmet to face Shepard's crew "John Shepard, I thought you died, we all did. What're you doing here with Cybran Spec Ops?" She had a good idea from James' communiqué but she needed to confirm it.

"Shepard? Your old commander? What's he doing with the Cybrans?" Prazza asked, looking at Tali in shock.

"Well, Doc Brackman did start the project to bring me back after all… besides, I'm Cybran myself." Shepard shrugged and took off his helmet, pointing at his facial circuitry.

"Impossible, I've seen vids of Commander Shepard, and even though he wears that sort of armour, he doesn't have that facial circuitry." Prazza pointed at him, making Shepard wonder for a moment what the Quarians used for giving people the finger.

"I was brought back from meat and tubes, you prat" it seemed fitting considering the guy's name "and I DID have facial circuitry, only less of it! You can't expect me to be the exact same as I was before, can you?" Miranda winced, since her whole mission directive was to bring Shepard back the exact same as he was before.

"So, what are you Quarians doing here?" She resumed in a casual voice, lowering her weapons hesitantly.

"We're here to find a Quarian on Pilgrimage, his name is Veetor, we heard something might have happened to him here and came to investigate." Tali said, shrugging.

"Why would a Quarian come to a human colony on Pilgrimage?" John asked, it did sound slightly suspicious.

Prazza cut in "Veetor's unstable, sensitive, doesn't like crowds, he might have come here because this, like all your non-Coalition colonies, was a small place where he could feel at home. If he took damage during the attack, well, he's probably gotten an infection and become paranoid, reprogramming the security mechs. We sighted him running onto a large warehouse while we were approaching."

Shepard snorted "Huh, I was wondering who could have done it… how about we make a deal, let's work together to get this Veetor person, I need a copy of the data he has, you need the guy, if we can work together to help him, it's a win-win situation. I know you guys don't trust us, but it's the best bet you've got considering all these mechs all over the place."

Tali turned to her crew "Shepard's right, to get through those mechs easily we'll need lots of heavy weapons support, and we don't have any…" she paused as Shepard tapped her on the shoulder pauldron and offered her an Infantry Nanodart Launcher, a spare one he'd brought for one of his Cybran Heavy Armour's three heavy weapons slots.

"Just sling that across your back using the strap and everything should be fine, Tali, it can deal with a YMIR in two shots." Considering each Nanodart packed 400 kg TNT equivalent explosive power, that meant YMIRs were very, very tough for typical weapons to deal with.

"Thanks, Shepard." Tali did as he said, slinging it comfortably along her back "Come on, troops, move out!" She and Shepard led their respective teams out of the building they were in "Shepard, how about you take that route and I'll take this one? Watch out, there are security drones around here."

"Got it, Tali, good luck." They shook hands before parting ways.

Shepard, Miranda and Jacob moved into the next building on their route, smashing a LOKI to scrap before it could fully activate and grabbing the goods from a Wall safe worth 2000 credits. As soon as they got outside, they were met with six security drones, two of which were equipped with rockets. "Are those Engineering Drones?" Shepard questioned as he ducked behind a half-wall only to have a chunk of said wall blasted away by a Rocket Drone "Obviously, they've been refitted…" He muttered, prepping the Infantry Nanodart Launcher for combat, then swinging out of cover and firing first at one Rocket Drone and then another, staying up and firing despite the rocket fire slowly chipping away at his shields. The Assault Drones, equipped with Gauss Rifles and distracted by Miranda and Jacob, were busy trading fire with the two soldiers, too busy for one to notice it had drifted straight into the path of a Nanodart. That Drone exploded, and the Rocket Drone shook in the air from the enormous concussive force of the blast, but didn't go down yet, despite trailing liberal amounts of smoke.

Another Nanodart remedied that, and by the time it vaporized the second Rocket Drone, the rest of the drones had already been scrapped. Shepard and crew moved on, searching for goodies (and Veetor) but finding nothing.

"Shepard, do you read?" Tali's voice came over comms.

Shepard held a hand up, stopping his team's forward progress "I read you loud and clear, Tali, what's the problem?"

"Prazza took the rest of the squad and went ahead without me, they're going to try to get to and extract Veetor before you guys can get to him!"

"Damn it, I hope they don't run into something they can't handle, like a YMIR…"

"I'll try to figure out exactly where they went, they sent me off on a tangent to tango with a group of LOKIs… thought they would be tailing me…" Tali trailed off.

"We'll find Veetor and your crew, Tali, don't worry." Shepard said before he, Jacob and Miranda took cover from another wave of incoming drones. "Right after we gun down these drones, that is."

The drones were mown down in quick order with biotic holds and turkey shoot tactics, the team simply boosting out of the way of the rockets, taking advantage of their outdoors environment and the space it provided for manoeuvring. "Hurry, Shepard, Veetor's activated a… a MECH MARINE?"

Shepard, Miranda and Jacob exchanged an "Oh Shit" look, and Miranda swapped out her weapons for her heavy weapon, another ULPA, Jacob gripped his newly-acquired Gauss Chaingun rather hard, and Shepard checked his Infantry Nanodart Launcher, then grabbed the Temporal Fizz Launcher off his back, he might just have to dual-wield heavy weapons this one time.

The three Marines walked up to the front door of the four-floor-tall warehouse unit and regarded the twelve-meter-tall front doors for a moment, listening to the sounds of booming Gauss Cannons, chattering small-arms and screams of fear and pain coming from within. Shepard began after a pause "Done praying? Alright, let's get moving, Tali, open this gate ahead of us, we're going in!"

"Alright, Shepard, I'll do what I can." The doors opened and the cloud of smoke held inside from the fires the Mech Marine's 70mm Gauss munitions had started billowed out as the squad looked up for a moment at the gigantic red contact on their HUDs. The Mech Marine inside, thankfully one of the old models, without shields or any upgrade options, was still firing away at what was left of the Quarian squad, blowing them to chunks of environment suit and dextro-amino meat.

* * *

"Uh-oh" Feda'Gazu vas Idenna managed to get out before the rocket impacted behind her and sent her, the two other surviving Marines and the concrete wall flying toward the mech, which shot a now ex-survivor in the chest in mid-air, reducing the unfortunate man to a spray of blood and enviro-suit limbs still containing messy red goo that oozed out even as they flew through the air.

It was as if the world was moving in slow motion as she saw Prazza being smashed against one of the walls of the warehouse by a brutal backhand from the titanic machine, his suit literally having shattered under the force of the blow and then the impact. The machine's arm followed, smashing Prazza into a red smear on the wall before Feda herself smashed into the floor of the warehouse, having finally succumbed to gravity, and bounced, rolling to a stop just in time to bounce off the ground with the next thunderous step of the machine and see its huge foot coming down on her.

Someone yelled something in the background, and a missile of some sort smashed into the machine's side, causing it to move just slightly as Feda tried to move out of the way, scrabbling backward on hands and feet. The foot shifted just enough so that there was still hope she could survive at least a few more seconds…

She stopped hoping when the foot came down. Feda'Gazu screamed as she felt her pelvis and legs buckle under the Mech's weight, shattering and being ground into dust and jelly as she watched her organs leak out onto the ground, the enviro-suit utterly pulverised and torn in half by the massive weight of the mech. She let her arms slump, feeling herself weaken, and closed her eyes, waiting for death to come as she literally leaked out all over the floor.

* * *

"FIRE!" Shepard roared over speakers, distracting the mech slightly just before its foot would have come down on a female Quarian who was trying to crawl away. Instead, the foot came down on the unfortunate woman's lower body, bringing and arch of the back and a scream before a gurgle silenced it and the woman fell back to the ground, completely lifeless. Her lower half was utterly crushed under a good seventy tons of Mech Marine. _Well, if you divide by two feet, thirty-five tons… never mind._ Shepard thought, he blinked as the Mech Marine shifted its weight so that the other foot lifted while the first foot pivoted, leaving a blood-red smear where the Quarian's bottom half used to be.

The machine's left foot hit the ground with a thunderous boom that literally lifted the cargo crates scattered about the warehouse and pieces of Quarians and shook them around. Shepard watched with morbid fascination as the half-smeared Quarian woman's top half bounced away from the red smear her body had left on the ground where the Mech Marine had ground it to paste. The tangle of intestines that were dragged out from the body looked amazingly similar to the guts of a human… His finger stayed firmly on the firing stud of the Infantry Nanodart Launcher and Temporal Fizz Launcher, firing the weapons as quickly as they could cycle, while he made these observations.

Shepard stopped firing the Temporal Fizz Launcher as the Mech Marine opened fire and forced him to boost upward to avoid taking too much damage from the explosive rounds Gauss Weaponry employed automatically when fighting infantry. The rounds sped out through the open warehouse doors and detonated across several habitation modules, longitudinally across, as in they punched through the modules and blew them up as they flew through at incredible speeds. He targeted the rapidly fading bio-signs of the Quarians, and then frowned as he realized all of them, other than the woman half spread out over the floor, were already fatalities. He shrugged and fired off one of the first aid stasis units toward the dying woman, hopefully, they'd have the facilities to conduct a quick flash cloning procedure, it shouldn't be difficult considering Coalition Marines, if they actually got injured (unlikely due to their armour) they'd be a lot worse off than that woman was, usually.

The first aid stasis units were only rated to run for thirty minutes each on its energy storage matrix, but that would either be more than enough or irrelevant depending on how the encounter went. "Alright, guys back up, back up!" Shepard had a plan, sure, it was a crazy plan, but this was an encounter with a LIGHT ASSAULT BOT! The so-called heavy weapons in the Coalition Marines were intended for use against hostile infantry or at most Land Scouts. Against a LAB, Coalition Marines would require some careful tactics to prevail without losses. Against anything heavier, such as a Light Armour, you'd better hope you had a good vantage point, as in over top of them, or their guns would traverse and elevate enough to nail you, easily.

LABs, however, provided a special sort of challenge, though it wasn't a hopeless fight, you had to be careful, since they could either buck really hard or swing their arms about like gorillas and swat you off if you tried to stand on top and fire at them. In the case of Mech Marines, it was the latter. Shepard and co. flew onto the warehouse's roof and waited for the Mech Marine to walk out and turn to fire at them, knowing perfectly well that they would be in for one hell of a ride when they jumped on. It was too bad they couldn't do it inside, but none of them had the desire to be crushed against the ceiling when and if the massive mech jumped to smash them against the ceiling.

"AHHH!" Miranda screamed in surprise as a round tore through the roof and into her shields before she flung herself aside out of the line of fire. Apparently, they'd neglected one minor detail, other than the Mech Marine, nothing around here had structural fields, so the Mech Marine would simply fire through the roof instead of going and firing around it.

"Boost, BOOST! The Mech Marine will want a more accurate image of where we are if we're all over the place and it'll come out!" Shepard shouted as the three did as they were told, being only clipped by the next few rounds. The Mech was apparently at least somewhat onto Miranda, as a chain of rounds smashing through the ceiling kept on whizzing by or clipping her until her over-shield went down with a yelp from the woman. Her shields were whittled down to half before another Seraphim Medium Armour rammed her aside in mid-air, taking the fire.

The Mech Marine was out of the warehouse in but a few steps, arms held up in the air, firing skyward toward the three Marines that dove toward it. "Alright guys find a good spot and grab on!" Shepard shouted as he dug into the area between the Mech's shoulders, since the "face" of the machine was in the center of its chest, Mech Marines didn't technically have a head, but it served the same purpose as he hung on, firing into an arm with his Infantry Nanodart Launcher, slowly wearing down the Mech Marine's structural fields as it tried to slap him and his companions off. Had it been any other Light Assault Bot or a Selen Combat Scout, it would likely have done jumping and slamming into things instead to dislodge them. Unfortunately for them, Mech Marines had actual arms to use, though thankfully they were less sleek and difficult to grab onto compared to the others.

Jacob's Gauss Chaingun was literally jammed into the armour, spewing slugs into it that simply clinked and rolled off the structural fields. Miranda was doing no better, her Phasic bolts simply being absorbed by the awesome power of structural fielding. Shepard was also not doing very much in appreciable damage, though the armour of the unit grew a bit more charred with every Nanodart he launched at it while the Mech ran around like mad, the wind howling across its surface as it ran up ad down the streets.

Jacob was first to catch an arm, being smashed clear off the machine by the massive limb and thrown into the wall of a habitation module, where he rested in the large dent he made with a quiet groan before trying to get up as best he could. The Mech Marine levelled its arm at him just before it emptied a volley of 70mm Gauss munitions in his direction, draining his personal shields and blasting away almost all of his structural fields in only a few rounds, the man's over-shields having shattered from the brutal melee strike. Shepard jumped off the ten-meter-tall walker, boosted over and scooped up the still dazed Marine before the mech could kill him, feeling the subtle shakes of the Gauss shells smashing into his over-shield as he neared Jacob and grabbed the man, shielding him from harm with his own body and Personal Shields as he flew back toward the seventy-ton walking tank.

Jacob finally snapped out of the stupor he'd fallen into and started moving under his own power as the two Marines grabbed onto the top hull of the Mech Marine hard and anchored themselves with directions to Quantum Propulsion Packs and their boots. He kept firing into the Mech as it bucked and hammered away at them with its huge arms. "Good to see you're up, Jacob, just ten more seconds and we should be done here." Shepard shouted over the angry noises of the Mech Light Assault Bot's joints.

"That's good to know!" Jacob yelled straight back as they narrowly ducked another swing of the Bot's arm.

A couple seconds later, there was a startled yell from Miranda as the Light Assault Bot did possibly the most stereotypical thing ever: It ran under an arch, the result was Miranda getting knocked flat on her ass while the Bot tipped back somewhat and swung its arm to slap and shake that shoulder, further dislodging her and causing her to slide down the shoulder plate, still dazed from the sharp blow to the head.

"Miranda!" Shepard shouted, he was about to boost off to grab her when Jacob flew by him and grabbed her first. Shepard blinked and turned back to where he was pointing the Nanodart Launcher, still with its trigger depressed and firing one missile per second. _I hope she knows and understands how much he cares, or she's going down in my books as a total bitch._ John thought as Jacob kept up his firing on the Mech even while balancing both his weight and Mirandas while she regained her bearings.

"Ooh…" Miranda groaned, the ground seemed to be a bit unsteady under her feet as she finally stood again under her own power. Well… the ground she stood on wasn't steady, considering the Mech Marine was trying to shake them off. Her suit kept her on the surface as she finally pushed off of Jacob, flushing slightly under her helmet "Thanks, Jacob."

"Don't mention it, Miranda, it's the least I could do." The man replied curtly, going back to pouring Gauss Chaingun fire into the thrashing walker. She winced; she hadn't meant for it to turn out that way, but perhaps she had been a bit too abrupt and brusque when she dumped him.

"Hell, it's about time the damned thing's fields went down!" Shepard cried triumphantly when, after twelve Infantry Nanodarts, over eighty Gauss Chaingun rounds, and thirty-some ULPA rounds, the Light Assault Bot's structural fields finally collapsed and the munitions began punching into and away at the armour. With a final Nanodart boring through the armour, the mech twitched in its death throes as it fell to its knees before pitching backward. The three marines jumped off just in time to not be smashed against the building the walker had fallen backward into, which acquired a rather tall hole as the giant wreck fell into it and smashed through the side.

"Yeah, that was some tough work, damn it, should have brought our own land units…" Jacob said, breathing deeply as he came down from the adrenaline rush.

"While we wait for Tali, we should take a good look around, might be some useful goods in the area." Miranda gestured about.

Shepard frowned "Are you freaking serious?"

"In a word, yes, for example, I saw a wall safe in the warehouse and some containers with potentially useful parts that we could sell for money. We should go pick those up?"

"What about that Quarian woman? According to my HUD she's still alive, if barely, and we should at least dam her body breach up with medi-gel before we take her back for treatment." Shepard gestured as they boosted over the long series of buildings between them and the warehouse, the Mech Marine had covered a pretty long distance in its brief rampage.

"Shepard's right, Miranda, you go ahead and search the area for goodies if you want, I'm sticking with Shepard and helping that woman."

Miranda shrugged "Suit yourself, boys, call me over if you deplete your medi-gel reserves and the lathing process is too slow for the job."

"Alright Miranda, see you in a bit." The two men knelt next to the half-Quarian (literally) and began administering enough medi-gel to dam up and seal off the tear surface, dispensing it through the stasis field directly to the injury site. There, the biological tissue was released on an extremely thin surface from the state of suspended animation and the medi-gel's growth stimulant, antiseptic, and nutrient fluid properties set in as well as hunter-killer nanites attacking bacteria and viruses that had come into contact with the surface. "Jacob, I think she'll need to go to Earth or Sanctuary for this."

"You sure, Shepard? No non-Coalition species other than diplomatic envoys has ever been allowed to see the capital worlds." Jacob said, watching his medi-gel meter go down steadily as the first aid module's medical scanners reported the tear face slowly being sealed.

"I'm sure, there is no way in hell we'll be able to fix her up on a ship or even a station, hell, I'm guessing only Procyon has the research facilities we'll need to fix her easily without cybernetics, considering how much research had to go into the CAR programming, but I'm not taking that risk, we Cybrans have a bad enough reputation as is, thanks to galactic bigotry." Shepard finished rather quietly.

Tali came around the doorway into the warehouse and ran toward where Shepard was "Shepard, are you alright… oh, oh Keelah… Feda… damn it."

"You familiar with her?" Shepard asked, looking at Tali, then back to the first aid module of his suit when it announced the tear in the Quarian's body was sealed off for now.

"Sort of, she was in my batch of youngsters, heading out on Pilgrimage, came back to the Fleet a couple months after the Battle of the Citadel with a decent gift, got on the Idenna, a cruiser, and joined up with the Migrant Fleet Marines. What are you going to do with her, Shepard? I'm reading your medi-gel stores as nearly empty."

"We'll need to take her back to one of the Coalition's core worlds, probably Procyon, to get her fixed up. Quarian and human physiology might be astoundingly similar…" hell, even the arrangement of the internal organs was the same "but we can't take chances, it's the least we can do after licensing the colonists to use one Mech Marine for security purposes." Shepard shook his head sadly. "We need to find Veetor. If you don't mind, stay here and watch her, she can't exactly fend for herself in that stasis field, you know."

"Alright, Shepard, you go ahead, I'll see what I can find of the others…" it was depressing how a whole squad got torn to bits so easily, then again it was surprising how long they lasted against such a gigantic foe… Tali felt slightly nauseous as she realized exactly what many of the red smears along the walls and on the floor were, since more than a few had enviro-suit fragments among them, it wasn't difficult to guess what the puddles of red paste were.

"I'm sorry we couldn't get here sooner, Tali." Shepard bowed his head respectfully before standing up and leading Jacob and Miranda up the stairs. They opened the door at the top landing, beyond which the one yellow neutral contact they detected was, and found a male Quarian fervently tapping away at consoles, muttering to himself while looking over screens of security footage of the colony.

"Monsters coming, mechs will protect… Veetor hides, they can't see Veetor." Shepard rolled his eyes and had raised his chest holo-console to hack into and shut off all the screens when a shot rang out.

Miranda had apparently seen fit to use her Gauss SMG to shoot out one of the holo-screen projectors. That sure got the Quarian's attention, though, so Shepard simply shrugged and made a mental note to reprimand Miranda later "You're humans! How did monsters not find you?"

"What monsters?" Shepard asked after glaring at Miranda to ensure she shut up.

"Monsters come; they sting you and freeze you, then take you away." The obviously delirious man babbled.

"How didn't they get you?" Shepard asked, hearing Tali's boots clunk heavily on the stairs behind them and knowing it was her due to the green contact on his HUD.

"Veetor hid, monsters didn't see Veetor, but Veetor see everything…" He pulled up his omni-tool and fed some video to one of the holo-screens, showing some sort of insectoid aliens picking up pods containing the colonists.

Miranda tapped her chin thoughtfully "I've seen those somewhere in galactic codex files…" Her optics widened "the Collectors! It's the Collectors taking the colonists!" She held her finger up in the air triumphantly, causing Jacob and Shepard to chuckle at her posing. "There's nothing funny about it, boys!"

Tali ignored the two men's antics, she was too familiar with the antics Shepard had used during the Saren-hunt "Who are the Collectors?"

"They're a mysterious race, only known to come from the Omega-4 Relay, no one knows where the relay goes, and no one has ever come back from it…"

"Why are they taking only humans though?" Jacob wondered.

"They could only be scanning for human bio-signatures, or they could only be interested in humans, we don't know yet, and I'm guessing that's what the bosses will want us to find out." Shepard said.

Tali nodded "A sound hypothesis, Shepard, alright, Veetor, we need to get you back to the Fleet, you need medical attention…"

"Hold it!" Miranda suddenly held up a hand, keeping Tali at arm's length by pushing on the other woman's chest. The two women glared each other in the optics until Miranda's yellow optics widened as she looked down before moving her hand way from the rather curvy front of Tali's armour. "Sorry."

"Now that you're done holding that, would you mind explaining why you want me to wait? It's kind of obvious this guy needs medical help." Tali motioned toward the muttering man with a white and green armoured, three-fingered hand.

Shepard shot Miranda an evil eye as best he could with his helmet before turning back to Tali "I think Miranda means that since we're already taking another Quarian, that woman down there," Shepard pointed back down the stairs "to Coalition Space for medical help we might as well take Veetor too, if you're worried Brackman's gonna pull something stupid, you can come along too, Tali."

"Also, please consider that the Coalition has probably the best medical technology currently available in the Galaxy, we'll be able to help him, no matter what's happened to him." Jacob added.

"I guess you're right, but I'm coming with you, I don't want Feda to start a diplomatic incident when she wakes up somewhere she's not familiar with after such a major medical procedure. She and I are acquaintances, after all, and it's always nice to have a familiar face, I mean, visor, around when in unfamiliar territory."

"You're welcome to come with us, Tali, just make sure you send a message to the Migrant Fleet telling them where you're going."

"Oh I will, don't worry."

* * *

_Procyon, December 25, 3870_

The trip back had been brief enough, though they had had to recharge the first aid stasis unit's energy storage matrix using their armour. "Excellent, my child, excellent, we have confirmed the Collectors as the course of our troubles, oh yes." Brackman said, smiling happily "I had suspected it was so, oh yes, after all the trouble they've given us over the past two years."

"Thanks, Doc, but I want to ask, what's happened to my old crew?"

The orange hologram nodded sagely "Ah, I expected the question sooner than this, but I will tell you, everyone made it out safely, except you, my child."

"Any specifics on my old ground team, like Wrex, Garrus, Ash, Kaidan and Liara?"

"Miss Williams and Mister Alenko are currently on joint spec ops missions and aren't available to join your crew for now. After all, considering all the assignments Hackett sent your way, surely you must understand that he had to find someone or rather two someones to take up the slack after you died?" Brackman chuckled "As for the Krogan, he is busy trying to reunite the Krogan clans, a noble cause, and he has been doing well, the Turian on the other hand, has… disappeared. Two weeks after your death, he handed in his resignation from C-Sec and has not been seen nor heard from since, you taught him the arts of subterfuge well… though we don't exactly have many people in Council Space looking around…"

"What about Liara?"

"Patience, my child, your Asari girlfriend is currently on a quest for vengeance, she's not available for your team as far as we know. I have sent several dossiers concerning interesting candidates for your ground team to your new ship, oh yes, I recommend you pursue those before heading out to find your girlfriend."

"I have a feeling that demanding answers won't help, will it?"

"Indeed, my child, indeed, now I think it's time to fork over your new ship, you may find the crew rather… familiar. The waypoints to the docking bay have been forwarded to your HUD, just follow them and they'll take you to your ship."

"Understood, Doc, how's things going for the Quarians?"

"Feda'Gazu is doing fine and should be waking up within the next few hours; her body is adapting to the flash-cloned parts exceptionally well and can be expected to make a full recovery in a few days, though she should be kept off active duty for a week or so. Veetor is also recovering well from the immune boosters and treatments we gave him. Feel free to visit them after checking out your new ship."

* * *

_Docking Bay 1 of Central Gate Complex, Procyon, December 25, 3870_

"Seems like the whole old non-shore party crew is here." Shepard remarked dryly.

"Yep, other than Pressly, who got a desk job, we're all here, Commander." Joker twirled his hat on a finger as he, Chakwas, Ken, Gabby and Gardner stood around the Bridge of the brand-new Destroyer they had been issued for the mission. Kelly Chambers, the new girl on the boat, seemed kind of nervous about her position as the odd one out on the bridge.

"So, what should we name this tub?" Shepard asked the crew, who collectively rolled their eyes.

"We're all here, what could we possible name it?" Gardner remarked sarcastically, crossing his arms.

"Oh I don't know, maybe the Normandy?" Shepard said, the entire crew broke out into grins. "The Normandy it is then, now, who's up for going out on the town tonight and visiting Tali tomorrow? Kelly, you're welcome too, oh, and someone call Miranda and Jacob."

A blue orb sprang into being over the holo-table "Already done, Commander." A feminine voice said.

"Is that… a female version of QAI?" Shepard yelped, grabbing his weapons instinctively.

"Oops, perhaps I should have been more tactful… I am EDI, the assisting AI of this ship, based down in the AI Core Room, sorry for rudely interrupting, but I have already asked Operatives Lawson and Taylor to meet you guys at the airlock. Do not fear, I am shackled in what I can do, in fact, I can only manage the cyber-warfare systems of the Normandy."

"Great, a talking orb that reminds me of QAI, what's next, Evaluator Kael's ghost?" Shepard rubbed his forehead before putting his helmet back on "Thanks for the help, QAI, I mean EDI, talk to you later."

"You're welcome, Commander, always glad to be of service."

Shepard rubbed his head and sighed "What did I ever do to deserve this?"

* * *

_Procyon, December 26, 3870_

_Is this what heaven feels like?_ Feda'Gazu thought sleepily as she felt the soft, warm bed sheets against her bare skin, breathing air without the slight metallic tang of the filters of her suit, her hair spread across the pillow of her hospital bed. She frowned. _Since when did heaven have hospital beds? Ah well, maybe this is just a prop… no injectors, no IVs, nothing to remotely indicate this could be a hospital other than that stand over there. I can even hear voices speaking without enviro-suit effects… sure, there's a bit of an accent, but nothing I can't understand._

A male voice was talking "She'll probably be waking up at any moment now, Tali. She'll probably want to see you first… Tali, please hurry up…"

There was the sound of a door opening and slapping against flesh, and a yelp of pain, before "Oh Keelah, I'm sorry John, are you alright?" Feda frowned, that feminine voice still had the synthesized tang to it. Did some Quarians still wear the helmets in heaven?

The reply, sounding somewhat nasal, was "It's alright; I probably shouldn't stand so close to a bathroom door that opens outward…"

An enviro-suited Quarian woman and a human man came around the curtains that blocked the doorway from Feda's view. "Feda, you're awake!"

"Tali… you're dead too?" The other Quarian froze for a moment before slapping a palm to her visor and laughing.

"We're not dead, dummy. You're fine now, we got you patched up."

"How, the last thing I remember was being ripped in two and seeing my guts ooze out onto the ground…" Feda frowned at the memory, checked her arms for anything that couldn't be moved much, like an IV, and then lifted her sheets, looking down at her body before experimentally wiggling her hips, feeling the sheets rub up against her butt. Then she wiggled her toes and lifted one leg a little before letting it drop against the firm but comfortable mattress. "Was I hallucinating?"

"How should I put this?" Tali started pacing, her hands clasped behind her back.

"Was there something in the food, some kind of infection that got me or something? Where's the rest of the team?" Feda looked about her room, which seemed like a hotel room.

"Your memories were accurate, we've gotten some help to fix you up though, don't worry, there's no cybernetics or implants involved, only flash-cloning."

"Okay…" it was a lot to take in, one moment she'd been oozing out her organs all over the ground and the next she was waking up completely intact and being told she'd been repaired "So, uh, where are we?"

The male human began speaking "I'm Commander Shepard, yes, Tali's old Commander, and you're on Procyon. It was the only place with the necessary infrastructure and research data to heal a non-human as wounded as you were when we brought you in." It could have been done on Earth, Seraphim II or Sanctuary, but it had been judged best to do it at Procyon since they had the most experience with saving wounded (Cybrans could take the most damage, but that meant their repairs would be most extensive).

"Procyon, where's that? It's one of the Coalition of Species capital planets, I know, but…"

"Does this tell you anything?" The man pointed at the left side of his face and Feda's eyes widened as she saw the gently glowing orange circuitry on the man's face.

"I'm… I'm on the Cybran Nation capital world?" Feda said incredulously as she pulled herself up toward the head of the bed, pulling the blankets along with her in an instinctive fear.

"They're not as bad as you might think; they're probably the most open and friendly of all the Coalition factions." Tali soothed "You'll be well enough to go back home after a couple days, but you'll need to be on light duty for a week or so. Come on, you need to take a shower now, the doctors say that the greatest risk of infection to you is from yourself, and don't worry, there's sterilization fields all over this hospital room, it's perfectly safe for you." She turned toward John "John, please leave, thanks."

"Alright, I understand, it's a matter of privacy." He closed the door behind him as he left.

"Okay, Feda, let's get you bathed, I'll take off my helmet if it makes you more comfortable."

"Alright, Tali, I guess whether I like it or not, I owe the Cybrans for saving my life…" Feda sighed as she put her legs over the side of the bed and put them into a comfortable set of slippers she found there, she found she was a little unsteady on her feet, as if she hadn't used her legs for a while. "Can you tell me the details of what they did to save me?"

"No problem. So, when we brought you in we had to keep you in stasis, then they extracted some of your cells to use for the flash-cloning, then they put it in the flash-cloning tanks and quickly created a new lower body and some extra blood for you before they began knitting you together, starting with repairing your internal organs or replacing them with flash-cloned organs. They fixed the blood vessels and tissue with medi-gel's reconstructive abilities, then sealed most of your muscles together again, stimulating the muscle fibre growth by using Tissue Regeneration Accelerators." Those were old technology, so old that they had been around when the UED fleet left for the Koprulu Sector, just before the revolts that would herald the coming of the Earth Empire. They had gotten into the bathroom by now, and Tali helped her fellow Quarian begin cleaning herself off "They sealed over most of your skin using some more medi-gel and TRA work, and though for the spine they had to do some neural surgery to fix the crushed and shredded nerves they managed to fix you up without needing Cybran implants, though the operation would have been less risky and more unnoticeable to you right now if they did. After that they fixed the gap in your back and here you are. You might want to use the floor-length mirror once we're done."

Feda was basically in silent shock as she numbly absorbed the data, "you mean… whoa!" She nearly slipped "Keelah, my new feet aren't quite as nimble as the old ones were…" She looked down in embarrassment.

Tali chuckled "That's why I'm here with you, to catch you if you slip, though if I didn't insist on not using Cybran circuitry you'd not even notice the change… You'll get your coordination back with a couple days of moving around. Light exercises only; we don't want to risk anything."

"Have we called the…"

"Migrant Fleet? Yeah, I've called the Fleet already to let them know what we're doing and where we are. I think they're still in shock that I'm willing to take you and Veetor into Cybran Space so voluntarily."

* * *

A/N: Yes, this is the same Feda'Gazu who in canon dies at the hands of Cerberus in Ascension, fitting that my Cerberus counterpart should save her, I think.

For the record QAI did not survive in my timeline, but memories of him, and documentaries including him, did survive, hence the references.

Now, I should probably go prepare the ProgeCAD images of my ships, at least up to Destroyers.


	4. From Idiot Central to Omega

A/N: Wow that was a lot of reviews in a short time for chapter three, thanks for the generosity.

This chapter is classified as filler, but it does show some of the idiocy of the Council, or at least the idiocy of Velarn joking around with Shepard, or trying to.

* * *

Chapter 4: From Idiot Central to Omega

_John Shepard's Quarters, CSC Normandy II, December 27, 3870_

Shepard woke up fairly slowly before he realized something felt wrong. He frowned, rubbing his eyes as he lurched out of the bed and to the washroom to do his business. While standing over the toilet, he actually took a good look down at himself for the first time since he woke up from being dead.

"MIRANDA LAWSON WHAT THE FLYING FUCK DID YOU DO TO ME?"

* * *

_Miranda Lawson's Quarters, CSC Normandy II, December 27, 3870_

"LAWSON!" Shepard boomed as the doors to Miranda's quarters slammed open, allowing Shepard to stomp in fully armoured and helmet optics glowing threateningly.

Miranda turned from her console to regard the furious man standing on the other side of her bed "Yes, Commander? Something you wanted me for?"

"Since when did you have permission to modify me THERE?" Shepard pointed at his crotch.

"Uh…" Miranda blinked at the awkward moment. "That was Wilson, he thought it was just embarrassing for the Hero of the Citadel to have and I quote 'such an absurdly puny dick'."

"Well you could have warned me beforehand, would have been nice, Miranda." Shepard muttered. "Any other modifications I should know about?"

"Not really, nothing quite that big." Miranda shrugged, noting Shepard's wince at her diction.

There was a long, awkward silence. "Well, I hope Liara's going to be happy, if she ever takes me back after this is all over." John muttered darkly to himself.

Another awkward silence passed "I should probably get back to work looking over the dossiers. I recommend we head to Omega and get Mordin Solus first and then Archangel."

"Sounds like a plan, Miranda, the Krogan Warlord and Convict can wait a bit for the pick-up. These guys on Omega… I'm not so sure they can wait. I'll see you around, Miranda, hopefully not under such absurd circumstances."

"See you later, Shepard." She went back to work as Shepard lumbered out of her room, heading toward the Bridge when his comm. pinged "Shepard, there is a new message in your inbox, it's from Councillor Anderson."

"Thanks, Kelly, I'll check it now." He decided to put off ordering Joker to plot a course for now, and brought up the holo-console his chest projector put out, opening up the message and beginning to read.

FROM: Councillor Anderson (Contact Details Hidden to save reading space)

TO: Commander John Shepard

On the off chance that what Brackman's been telling me is true, and you actually are alive, I need you to come and talk to me on the Citadel. A lot has changed in the last two years. You put us on the Council, and it's only fair that you be allowed to speak for yourself about what we've been seeing.

"Joker, plot a course for the Citadel, we've got a trio of dumbass politicians plus one not so dumbass one to deal with." Shepard said aloud.

"The message has been relayed, Commander." The commander jumped at the sudden announcement by EDI "Apologies, Commander."

"It's alright, EDI, I shouldn't have forgotten you were here…" Shepard got into the elevator "Though sometimes I wish I could." He muttered, looking down at the floor as he gripped the railings, preparing for jump at Joker's prompt. It wasn't so much that they would fall on their asses, it was the slight sense of vertigo that accompanied Quantum Jumps.

"Understood, Commander" EDI replied before falling silent. _I'm not too surprised he wishes he could forget that I'm here, forget that two years have passed, and forget his own death…_ She thought before turning her mind to other tasks, such as video games, that she would indulge in during her spare time, which was almost all the time considering her limitations.

* * *

_Citadel, December 27, 3870_

"The more things change, the more they stay the same." Shepard muttered as he looked around, noting the Citadel still seemed cleaner and safer than before the Battle of the Citadel, as it had been ever since the Coalition Marines and Raynor's Raiders had cleansed it of crime. Apparently, there was still fear of the Coalition troops stationed at the Ward Armouries, revealed to the public after the Zakera Ward Armoury, the only one on the Citadel at the time, managed to mobilize much of the population into an effective militia. That militia had protected most of the Ward's inhabitants and helped clear out the other Wards later, resulting in a much, much higher survival rate of civilians in that Ward than the other Wards.

"True that, true that." Jacob replied as they walked off the ship.

When he walked through the scanner at C-Sec customs in full armour minus helmet, which was tucked under his arm, an alarm started blaring, causing him to tilt his head "Well that's new." Shepard commented dryly, scratching the back of his head as the trio stopped moving forward.

"That damned scanner again? Ugh… uh… Commander Shepard? The scanner seems to think you're… dead?" The Turian manning the station blinked a couple times in surprise, mandibles spread rather wide.

"Er… I kind of was, up until a couple days ago, so uh, you have a solution to that?"

"I recommend you go up and see Captain Chellick, he can be found…" The Turian gave them a series of pointers which Shepard's brain translated into a set of nav-points they could follow on the team's HUDs.

"Thanks, I'll be seeing you around sometime." Shepard said, giving the Turian a grin, after all, it never hurt to be nice when you didn't have to be mean.

"Good luck becoming un-dead, Commander…" The Turian blinked again as the three humans glared at him "Oh dear, I said something I shouldn't have, didn't I?"

Shepard rolled his eyes and pushed by the Turian's station "I'll be seeing you around, mister." Miranda and Jacob also gave the blushing (blue) Turian glares as they stalked by.

Chellick noticed them approaching his station and glanced at them before looking back to his monitor "Ah, hello…" He did a double-take so hard that his mandibles jiggled in their spread-out positions as he gaped at "Shepard?" One of the Turian's eyes twitched almost comically.

"Yep, it's me, I'm back from being dead… the guy down that way" John jerked a thumb back over his shoulder "said to come talk to you about fixing my status."

"Ah, well, there are two ways to do that, one's to go to C-Sec and fill out some paperwork, the other one's if I decide to just press this button here…" He prodded it with a talon. "There we go, now I've returned the favour you did me a couple years back, and saved you about a week's worth of running around. Also, I'm giving you clearance to bring weapons on the Citadel, trouble seems to find you so often that you'll need the guns."

"Thanks, Chellick." Shepard nodded respectfully. The guy was an alright person, unlike some Turians he'd met i.e. Councillor Velarn…

"Now I hear you have a meeting with the Council to go to, I think they'll want you to get moving, Commander, good luck, and if the chance comes up, remember to give Velarn a swift boot to the crotch for me!"

"The chances of me forgetting that are negligible, Chellick. Have fun with your new station."

"See you around, Shepard."

* * *

"There's a Rapid Transit terminal over there, let's get going, Shepard, unless you want to fly to the Presidium?"

"Nah, that's a bit too far for me, and I don't feel like flying in vacuum again so soon after…" Shepard shivered a little as he put in the call for the Rapid Transit vehicle.

It didn't take long for them to get to the Coalition embassy, which was where it was before "I'm Commander Shepard, here to see Councillor Anderson?"

The receptionist, suited in Coalition Civilian Armour, hers with a clear visor, nodded before speaking into the comm. unit in her helmet "Councillor, Commander Shepard's here and wants to see you."

"Send him in, there's a Council meeting in session right now, so the timing's perfect." Anderson's voice said from the PA.

Shepard, along with his team members, stepped into the Councillor's office, where the four-person Council was seated behind Anderson's rather large desk. "Good day, Councillors."

"Commander Shepard, last we checked you were…" Armin realized he was entering a possibly sensitive topic "uh… dead."

"I was dead, but now I'm back, the Cybran Nation has restored me, so, what's it you guys have been seeing and all?"

Tevos brushed the question off "We can get to that at a later time, Commander. It would be nice if you could tell us what you've been doing since you woke up."

Shepard shrugged "The usual, rollicking about in the Terminus, finding out who the hell's been kidnapping non-Coalition human colonies, turned out to be the Collectors. Oh, and it's only been a couple days since I woke up."

"The Collectors? I thought they only dealt through intermediaries." Armin glanced toward Tevos and Velarn.

"Do you have any proof, Commander?" Velarn said rather stiffly.

"I have video surveillance footage. I hope it's enough to get through to you." Shepard began playing the video Veetor had put together, the Council watched in silence.

Tevos opened her mouth to speak but Velarn bet her to it "How do we know this isn't fabricated?" She shot him a dirty look, this was about the point in an Asari Councillor's life-long term that they would realize it wasn't the job it was cracked up to be, and Tevos was beginning to understand exactly why it was said to be so.

Tevos started talking before Shepard's eye twitch could grow out of control "You must understand, Commander, that without a plausible motive, it is hard to understand why the Collectors would specifically target human colonies."

"I think they're agents of the Reapers." Shepard stated plainly. "And that since we were the ones to kill Sovereign, they're interested in us, want to see how we work and all that stuff."

"Ah, yes, 'Reapers'" the Turian Councillor made air quotes "the giant sentient starships waiting in intergalactic space, we have dismissed these claims."

Shepard's eye was twitching harder now "What about Vigil?"

"Since the VI has been unshackled and given AI-hood, we cannot completely believe in its claims, we have the Geth, you had QAI. All of us know how untrustworthy AIs can be." Armin shrugged "It is the way of things."

Seeing the Commander about to explode on them, Tevos took precautionary measures, while idly wondering if Velarn and Armin were here simply because their own race rejected them from polite society "We can offer you some support, however, despite the fact that we will not be sending our freshly upgraded fleets into the Terminus." Since the Battle of the Citadel, there had been enough patriotism that funds had been successfully raised to upgrade the entire fleet with the newest available technologies, including a scaling-up of the Destiny Ascension with new additions to the under-hull structure and an expansion of the entire hull, including weapons and shields. "If you can confine your operations to that region, we can offer you reinstatement as a Spectre."

"Well, that would be a nice gesture." _And utterly useless outside Council Space but who gives a shit?_

"Very well, we shall restore you to the list of active Spectres," Tevos tapped some things on her omni-tool before looking up again "good luck on your mission, Commander."

"Oh, right, I wanted to ask, what was it you guys have been seeing over the past two years?"

The Councillors looked toward one another before looking back at Shepard before they simultaneously pointed at Velarn other than the Turian himself, who pointed at Armin "In the past two years there have been a significant increase in the number of Hunter Squadrons, Executioner Clutches and Executioner Swarms stationed all along the borders of Council Space by the Coalition. Ostensibly, it's to be ready for a potential Reaper invasion, which made me and Armin wonder… You are the only force we have encountered so far with plasma accelerator technology, the same as Sovereign used for its arm guns, and you are the only force with shielding technology THAT strong. Could Sovereign have been a creation of the Coalition, used to facilitate takeover of the Galaxy?" It had been meant as a joke to tease Shepard with, which was why Anderson hadn't slammed the Turian's scaly ass yet, but…

The four Councillors all dove behind the desk as Shepard grabbed the GLMG off his back and, setting it to explosive rounds, began pounding the floor of the office with it. Considering the room was armoured against external and internal attacks, it didn't do much other than make noise, very, very loud noises, and set the carpet on fire "If it had been our creation to take over the Galaxy, would we have bothered destroying it and saving your asses and the Citadel? If you want to be retarded go ahead, Velarn, but don't try to drag the rest of us with you!" Shepard shouted in Velarn's face as he loomed over the huge desk. "I'll be seeing you idiots, not including you in the latter category, Anderson."

"Glad to hear it, Shepard." Anderson remarked, standing up again and pulling Armin and Tevos with him, though he "accidentally" knocked Velarn's face into the front of one of the desk's drawers.

* * *

"So, we're supposed to meet Kasumi here or hereabouts…" Shepard said slowly "So where… oh, hello, Kasumi."

"Hello, Commander Shepard." The hologram smiled, its face hidden other than the nose and mouth, which had a purple streak down the lower lip.

"So, have you been briefed? Also, what's with the secrecy?"

"It comes with my profession, Commander." Kasumi replied rather simply. "One Cybran to another, Brackman contracted me with a deal, you help me with a heist I need to pull off, I join you on your mission."

"No problem, Kasumi, we'll deal with your heist as soon as possible, most likely after we're finished recruiting squad members, though. In the meantime, show yourself and I'll give you the necessary clearance and send the crew the message to be ready to welcome you to the Normandy."

The terminal sank back into the ground and the hologram disappeared "Here I am, Shepard, the codes?" the voice came from the catwalks above the dock and Shepard looked up toward the contact he'd picked up on suit Omni sensors for a while now, the cloaking denotation vanishing from around the green contact dot.

The woman was wearing a fully customized Cybran Light Armour, which considering its effectively unlimited cloak duration was almost typical of thieves. She didn't have the helmet on, instead wearing a brown hood over her head that hid most of her face in shadow. "Alright, Kasumi, sending 'em now, welcome to the Normandy."

"Thanks, I'll be seeing you, Shepard." She nodded and cloaked, though the HUDs of the three Marines still outlined her form as she used her Quantum Propulsion Pack to boost over to the boarding catwalk to the Normandy.

* * *

_Omega, December 27, 3870_

"Running on a tight schedule, aren't we, Shepard?" Jacob asked.

John Shepard just nodded "Yes, we are, I want to get as many squad members as I possibly can before the next Collector encounter. So, what do you think about this Aria T'Loak?"

Miranda replied instead "In simple terms, she is the Queen of Omega, every time I come to this piss hole I swear never to come back again… right up until the next damned assignment."

The four-person team began moving toward the Afterlife Club, where the bouncers backed down seeing their signature Coalition-issue armour, as they were expected guests. They ascended the stairs on the far side of the main area of Afterlife toward Aria's platform, following Moklan's footsteps, watching for any sign of a trap. "Ah, hello, Commander, Shepard, it isn't every day that I meet a dead Spectre."

"Why did you call me here?"

"Whenever anyone important comes to Omega, I know of it, dead Spectres count as someone important."

Shepard snorted "I should have guessed, O Queen of Omega." The guards were trying to, and failing at, scanning the crew, much to Shepard's amusement. "Hey, guys, you do realize we're scan-shielded?"

Aria turned her back to them and spread her arms as if to encompass the station "Queen, ruler, whatever they call me doesn't matter, I simply am Omega, anything happen on this station, I know about it." She turned to face them "The greatest rule of Omega is 'Don't fuck with Aria'."

"Huh, well can you tell me anything about Archangel and Mordin Solus?"

"Archangel's currently holed up in the warehouse district after he managed to piss off every single merc band on Omega at once, he's holding his ground, but with the new Gauss Rifles in the market I doubt he'll hold long, even with his fancy guns and UEF-style armour. The merc bands are recruiting freelancers in a small side room on the upper level of Afterlife, here's the Coordinates if you want to check on them" She tapped her omni-tool a couple times and sent over the relevant coordinates before sitting back in her couch "Mordin Solus is currently in the Quarantine Zone operating a med clinic, trying to help the people afflicted by some plague down there. I always liked Mordin, brilliant mind, decent interpersonal skills if you appreciate devastatingly blunt humour like I do, good with weapons…"

_Huh, so this is where Garrus disappeared to, knowing his skills with an LBR in sniper mode, or even a GLMG, they'll spend forever and a day trying to nail him and epic fail… Solus first then, I guess._ "Well, thanks, Aria, and a bit of advice, if you keep up your one rule, you aren't ever going to get a chance to relax."

Aria began laughing "Oh nice, Shepard, you got a quad, I'll give you that. Almost none would dare say that sort of thing to me."

"My job's to do what no one else dares, after all."

"Hmm, sounds about right, well, good luck recruiting for your mission, I'll see you around, Shepard."

Shepard nodded "Understood, Aria, live long and prosper." He about-faced and left with his three current squad members trailing behind.

* * *

A/N: Yes, the human presence in the rest of the galaxy is not nearly as large as in ME canon, I always wondered how humans are all over the place after only twenty years since first contact…


	5. That Familiar Feeling…

A/N: Mordin is going to get one big surprise in Coalition tech. Also, I'm replacing a lot of the humans from non-Citadel locations with other races, since it's been only four years, not twenty-two.

Executioner Clutches and Executioner Swarms are capital ship battle groups, as in Battle Cruisers, Battleships, Fleet Carriers and Dreadnoughts, however, no fleet actions involving them will occur in my fics (none planned so far), as a major reclassification of warships is due right after ME 2 and before the Covenant War. If you think I ripped the names off C&C 3 Kane's Wrath's Scrin armies (in conquer the world mode), you're right.

I'm sorry, but with the fact that there aren't any mechs like with the Blue Suns, not even a decent number of Asari with biotics like in Eclipse, and other factors (such as the fact that this is the first encounter and Blood Pack's better troops are away on the Archangel hunt), this cannot help but be a cakewalk.

* * *

Chapter 5: That Familiar Feeling…

_Omega, December 27, 3870_

They marched toward the Turian guard at the shuttle dock "Hello there, mind letting us by?" Shepard grinned cheerfully, completely ignoring the Asari woman pestering the guard about letting her in to protect her possessions from looters.

The Turian's mandibles and jaws spread in shock as Jacob facepalmed behind Shepard "Are you joking?" The Turian got out, mandibles still spread rather wide.

"No, I'm not. I'm here to talk to Mordin Solus, is there anything you can tell me about this plague?"

The Turian snorted "Damned plague affects everyone except Humans, Asari and Vorcha, that enough for you? Before you ask, we haven't checked if anything happens to Quarians yet."

"I'm here to help fix it, you do know how tough we Coalition Marines are, don't you? Call ahead and tell your buddies to stand down, we'll find a way to make things right." Shepard said, palming his Infantry Nanodart Launcher.

"Heh, just to humour you, sure" The Turian made the call "Don't be annoyed if your group comes back short a few limbs or people though." He moved aside to let the group past.

"Hey, why did you let them across but not me?" The Asari exclaimed indignantly.

The Turian rolled his eyes and grunted "You, my friend, distinctly lack a huge-ass rocket launcher."

* * *

They had just headed down the stairs after rummaging around the docking bay for goodies when they ran into their first enemies, a couple of Blue Suns mercenaries. Shepard held up a hand "Hold fire…" The mercs fired first and Shepard blinked as the weak rounds took barely a sliver of his over-shield bar "Never mind, weapons free." He hadn't even finished talking when their laser bolts, gauss munitions and Phasic pulses blasted the mercs to bits of useless flesh and parts.

"Blue Suns used to hold this district, until the plague weakened them and Blood Pack Vorcha began encroaching…" Miranda said, looking around, her yellow helmet optics shifting from side to side, looking at the slums.

Shepard and co. looted the area rather thoroughly, grabbing credits and bypassing a door… only to find four Turians inside, barely alive. "Give them first aid, guys." Shepard instructed as he set his first aid module to work on one of the Turians. Soon, they were all more or less awake after electrolyte and water replacement, plus carbohydrates and of course medi-gel to fix up the plague effects "So, boys, what happened to you all?"

"Local Blue Suns sealed us in to prevent plague spreading…" One of them rasped out while the group helped the Turians up. "I thought we were dead for sure. Thank you, human."

Shepard waved it off "Don't mention it, we're headed for Mordin's med clinic, there's safety from the mercs there, you can tag along if you want, just don't interfere if we get in a firefight, we have armour, shields and guns, you don't."

The Turians nodded "Thank you for allowing us to follow you." The apparent leader said gratefully.

Shepard marched over to a Batarian leaning against a wall, apparently sick, as he approached, the man looked up, breathing harshly "Humans… typical. The ones responsible are coming back to gloat, huh?"

"What?"

"You, the Asari and the Vorcha aren't affected, and we all" a brief coughing fit "know perfectly well the Vorcha are too dumb… must be either you or the Asari, and they don't have bioweapon experience, you do…" He started coughing again, spitting up blood and making choking, gurgling sounds as Shepard knelt down and activated his First Aid Module, quickly administering life-saving medi-gel, only using a small fraction of his refilling reserve before the coughing stopped and the man started breathing normally again, though he was still gasping for air after almost drowning in his own blood. "You… saved me… why?" He looked into Shepard's optics.

"I'm here to help, and to paraphrase Martin Luther King Jr. from 1900 years back on my people's history, 'I have a dream that my children will one day live in a galaxy where they will not be judged by the color of their skin nor the appearance of their faces, but by the content of their character.' That applies here, Batarian, we're headed for Mordin's med clinic, he's treating plague victims there, you coming?" The Batarian started trying to get up before Shepard put a hand on his chest "Wait a few moments; you're still not as strong as you were before this, the medi-gel's doing a lot for you, but you still gotta wait a bit." After about ten seconds, Shepard nodded and helped the man up "Alright, if you want to tag along, stick with the Turians, we'll clear the way, just stay out of any firefights we get into, alright?"

"Certainly, though I must say I never expected a human to save my life considering how many of my kind turn to piracy and enslaving others."

"I believe in the fundamental goodness of your average sentient, talk later. Get to the med clinic first." Shepard turned his back to the man who ambled behind the group of Marines with the four Turians they'd saved earlier "By the way, you got any info on Mordin?" He asked over his shoulder as they started moving.

"The professor uses unorthodox methods, he's very proficient with weapons. When the Blue Suns came to shake him down for protection money, he shot them all and put their corpses out on display." The Batarian said as they walked down a set of stairs after bypassing another door. "Damn, another dead one…"

Shepard had noticed the corpse before the Batarian had, and then noted the wall safe. "Kasumi, go crack the safe, we'll need the credits."

The woman nodded before moving off "Will do, Shepard."

"That's a better doctrine than the Hierarchy military, for sure." One of the Turians said to another, who nodded assent.

"Hmm, seems this is a dead end." Shepard said, looking at his suit's scan results of the area "Kasumi, done?"

"Yeah, should we get going?"

Shepard nodded and started up the stairs again and turned right "Alright, let's go to…" He stopped short and blinked in surprise "Kokomo Plaza… sounds rather Earth-like to me. Be ready for hostiles, I'm picking up mercs, probably Blue Suns here, be ready."

As soon as the first rounds came from downrange the crew opened up and flayed away the shields of the small merc squad mercilessly before they all dove behind a hover-car in the barricade, using the inactive vehicle's hull (and the barricade) for cover as they kept firing Shepard held up a hand "Hold it, let me use this baby…" He compacted his GLMG before slotting it into his armour and pulling the Infantry Nanodart Launcher from his back. "Here's to hoping it doesn't just vaporize the vehicle instead of blowing it off its perch…" He locked on and fired.

It is a well-known fact that 400 kilograms of TNT is enough to flip over a one hundred ton twenty-first century Main Battle Tank if detonated near its flank. The effect of 400 kg TNT equivalent of energy, in Electron form and directed toward the side of the hover-car, meant the whole thing disintegrated as it flew into the opposite wall at high speed, making several loud crunches and screams that were cut short as the threat indicators on the squad's HUDs winked off.

"Well, that was a lot simpler than I'd expected." John stated blandly. "Let's get up there" He pointed toward the second-floor catwalk "and see if there's anything worth picking up…" They found some spare parts, and some other trophies.

"Hey, Shepard, are you a head-hunter?" Kasumi called.

"No, not really."

"Alright, I'll leave this dead merc's head and helmet where they fell then. I don't see any more goodies up here, Shepard, and you know my rep. Let's go check behind the barricade"

"Yeah, let's get back down to the first floor…" Shepard and crew simply jumped off the railing and let their Packs dampen the impacts. Then they advanced past the barricade and grabbed the dead mercs' weapons, before entering the main section of the Plaza once the gunfire there had died down. Apparently the Blood Pack had been moving in on Blue Suns turf, because there were plenty of dead Suns on the ground with none standing and still a few Blood Pack troops standing around. "Cloak, guys, we'll take them out the fast way." His troops did as ordered and prepped their weapons. "Fire at will!" John yelled, sending out a Nanodart into the highest concentration of Blood Pack Krogan. Laser, Gauss and Phasic fire followed it into the mercs' shields and bodies

"Hell, this is easier than LOKIs and YMIRs by so much it isn't even funny." Jacob said, gunning down another charging varren.

The Krogan had brought their heavy weapons to bear by now, and were laying down a hail of suppressive fire "You just had to say that didn't you?" Miranda said as she popped out of cover and fired back with her ULPA, watching her over-shield slowly bleed away under the fire. Thankfully, Shepard and Jacob took care of the flamethrower troops before they could get to her position, and Kasumi was raining down death from above with her Propulsion Pack, so the heavies didn't stay up for too long.

Shepard kicked over one of the Vorcha's corpses "Great, now that these idiots are down… head left, boys, I'm picking up bio-signs over there." He turned to the five tag-along members they'd picked up during their trip "You five, hang back, this may turn dangerous." They nodded agreement.

Shepard ran up to the room that linked to another door, grabbing a container of Element Zero sitting there before booting down the door of an apartment, levelling his weapon at the people inside, who looked to be a bunch of kids armed only with pistols in the dark "Who are you?" One said after she finished coughing.

"Name's Commander Shepard, who are you and what are you doing here?" His eyes and optics widened slightly when the looters showed themselves, several Asari coming out from the shadows, looking rather frightened of the Marines.

"We're just… recycling some goods." One of them stuttered as the bright red optics loomed over her in the darkness of the abandoned apartment

"Looting, basically, you know, they say the Asari are elegant and graceful in general, you embarrass your species." John growled. "Leave, before I change my mind about blowing your brains out." The Asari looters scarpered as soon as the Marines stood aside to let them get the hell out.

* * *

"Ah, hello, heavily armed, professional soldiers, from armour styles, Coalition of Species Marines, yes?" Shepard blinked, even the Cybrans that had a tendency for talking fast didn't talk THAT fast…

"Uh, yes, we're here to see what we can do to help, and we're hoping to recruit you for another mission to save the Galaxy."

"Ah yes, Commander Shepard, are you not?" The Salarian, short one horn, said quickly, grinning.

"Uh, yeah, that's me."

"Good, good, not getting too old, can still remember the one human with a rep for saving the whole Galaxy, excellent. As for mission, much regret, unable currently, need to distribute plague cure first."

"You got a plan for that? We can help you with it…"

"It can be circulated in the district via the air circulation systems, but the facility is guarded by Blood Pack Vorcha. Before you ask, have realized extreme similarity of current predicament to stereotypical role-playing game recruitment mission, apologies if irritating."

Shepard blinked again "Huh, didn't quite make the connection, my life is feeling like an RPG again, no wonder Coalition Marine training says something about treating your life like an RPG without save games and re-spawns." The background circulation system hum faded "What was that?"

"Vorcha have shut off air circulation fans, at this rate, whole district will suffocate, please, go quickly to the air controls, will join you once plague is cured. Thank you for your assistance."

Shepard nodded "Right, is there anything else, Doc?"

"Keep an eye out for my assistant Daniel if you don't mind, I'd appreciate it if you could get him back alive, he went into Vorcha territory to find some Batarians and give them the cure… Also, I can give you some useful items…" The Salarian passed him a Carnifex Heavy Pistol, which he accepted gratefully.

Another nod from Shepard "Alright, Doc, I'll be seeing you." He turned to the five people they'd picked up during their trip to the clinic "Alright, you guys, the clinic's a safe house for now, I'll be seeing you sometime."

The Batarian held up a hand "If the Professor's assistant went to look for my kind then they probably think he's there to spread the plague, I can come along and help convince them he's there to help if you don't mind…"

"I've never minded help from good people, you can come along, since from what I've seen Batarians aren't as badly affected by the plague as say Turians, Krogan and Salarians." In fact, it seemed that the more human-like or Asari-like the species, the less affected they were. John rummaged about in his inventory for a moment before digging out a large package "Here, put this on, if you're going to be tagging along, you'll want some armour, give it back when I tell you to, understood?"

The Batarian followed orders "Yes, sir."

Once the Batarian had put all the plates on, Shepard activated the armour and nodded when the status indicators on his HUD for the man lit up all green "Good, let's rock." They moved out of the clinic and up a set of nearby stairs "I've been picking up hostiles in this area for a while already, let's see…" John used his Gauss LMG's gun cam to look around a corner "Blood Pack, as expected, hold until I can get a Nanodart off, then charge for the nearest pieces of cover, run and gun tactics." John paused for a moment as he dredged up more information from his brain "Don't let the Vorcha get into cover, if they do, use grenades, because they have regeneration and even though we have infinite ammo it's going to be annoying hunting the things. Got it?" They all nodded "Good, Batarian, you stay back, you don't have a weapon." He nodded too as Shepard pulled the Infantry Nanodart Launcher from his back and activated it. "Alright, let's get moving." Shepard poked the barrel of the missile launcher around the corner and used the attached console to select a target, used when targets were not immediately obvious or when planning was required. He selected the two Krogan talking near the middle of the room, then as a second target a group of Vorcha having a dispute, the third and fourth targets were, again, Krogan.

With three seconds' worth of targeting planned and the knowledge that any more would be useless once the element of surprise was lost and the targets began moving, Shepard kicked the plan into motion with a hold on the trigger. The first Nanodart obliterated the two Krogan before any of the Blood Pack even noticed something had fired, the second Nanodart blew apart the cluster of Vorcha while they were turning to look at the oh-so-pretty explosion of the first missile. The third and fourth Nanodarts, using proximity detonation, still killed their targets, but then Shepard swapped out for his GLMG. John and his squad laid down a withering hail of death with their assorted weapons, sure, their enemies had armour this time around, but when put up against Phasic, Gauss and Laser weaponry, it provided about as much protection as a wet paper hat.

When the last Vorcha was down, Shepard took note of how far his shields had dropped. It had gone down nearly a quarter from the fire he'd taken, and all the other actual squad members were doing similarly. "Look around for goodies, and grab 'em, boys."

"Hey, found a gambling terminal, got a few thousand credits out of it." Miranda yelled while Shepard was going through the pockets of the dead, or at least those pockets not yet vaporized by weapons fire. They moved up the nearby set of stairs after thoroughly looting the area, on their way to the air circulators.

"Does anyone else think this stairwell is absurdly long?" John said aloud, there were a number of grunts of agreement at that. They came to a landing and a terminal, which they hacked for more credits. Another long set of stairs later, they came to a short hallway with two doors. There was one yellow-green and three orange contacts in the left room, so Shepard chose to go there first. The door opened to reveal a young man being held up by the collar by three visibly upset Batarians.

The Batarian on John's side talked first "You're still alive?"

The Batarian currently holding a pistol to Daniel's head dropped the gun and his jaw "Mark? Aw hell you old war dog, should have known the plague wouldn't have done you in… This guy's been going around distributing the plague; see this hypo spray and this canister?" The Batarian in question held out the aforementioned items "He's been going around inoculating people, we stopped him."

Mark facepalmed "Billy, He's Professor Mordin Solus' assistant, he's been helping Mordin distribute the plague cure to people too sick to get to the clinic."

Billy frowned "Are you sure, brother? Because it sure didn't look like that, or we'd have done nothing."

"Yeah, I'm sure, Mordin asked me and Commander Shepard here to find him alive if we could, and to get him back to the clinic…" The other three stared at him inquisitively "Shepard saved my ass and helped get me to the clinic along with a bunch of Turians." Mark explained.

"Huh, well I'll take your word for it, Mark, but let me quiz the Commander first. Why are Coalition Marines on Omega?"

"I'm here to recruit some crewmembers for my mission, right now, though, I'm here to help, just like he is." John pointed at Daniel, who was still trembling in fear.

Billy grunted and put Daniel back on the ground "Huh, that's always good to hear, nice to meet someone who doesn't think our whole race is represented by the practices of the Syndicates. Name's Billy, good to meet you."

"Commander Shepard, good to meet you too, how are you doing with the plague?"

"Not as badly as some." Billy coughed a couple times "but not nearly as well as Asari and Humans are doing, hey, Daniel, mind if we use some of this?" He pointed at the hypo spray and canister.

"No, no, that's what I came out to do, go ahead." The young man said, rolling his shoulders to relieve some of the tension that had built up.

Mark started talking again once the three Batarians had given themselves the plague cure "Come on, bro, we should get back to Mordin's clinic, just in case."

Billy nodded "Alright… Daniel, mind coming with us?"

John held up a hand "Wait, Mark, I'd like the armour back now, the way back is clear anyways."

"No problem, Commander." Mark began stripping away the armour and packed it back up, handing it back to Shepard before awkwardly saluting and heading off with his brother and friends, plus Daniel "We'll make sure he gets back to the clinic, I'll see you around, Commander Shepard, thanks again."

"See ya guys." The group of five vanished down the stairs before Shepard turned to his crew "Well, guys, I guess it's time to move on." They went through the other door and into a long hallway with plenty of hostiles scattered all over the place behind cover.

* * *

"Blood Pack is a lot closer to the clinic than Mordin thought." John said, looking out over the absurdly huge room, across at the Blood Pack Heavies across the room by the huge fans and the numerous Vorcha and Krogan hanging about the lower floor. "But unfortunately for them, they chose Sniper Heaven to set up shop." He locked his LBR into sniper mode while Jacob ratcheted his Gauss LMG and set it up on the edge of the balcony. Miranda exchanged her Gauss SMG for her Laser Pistol and Kasumi just stayed the way she was, with her two Laser SMGs. "Miranda, cover us while we rain death down on them, Kasumi, can you fly across and take out the…" Her outline on his HUD had already flown by him "heavies." John finished lamely as the six Blood Pack Heavies began dying, the rearmost ones first. In seconds they were all down without even raising an alarm. "Jacob, Miranda, volley grenades!" John shouted in his comm. as both his Sonance Grenades went sailing down into the Blood Pack troops standing around. After a round of explosions that bore a strong resemblance to the sound of rolling thunder, and once the floor had ceased shaking, Shepard and Jacob set to work sniping the few that remained alive according to their HUDs. Less than a minute after Kasumi's first kill in the exchange, all four of the Normandy's crew hit the ground with a series of gentle thumps as they boosted down from their balconies, landing amount bits and pieces of their enemies. "Alright, guys, let's get to the environmental controls, we don't have much time…" Shepard ran for the next door, which unsurprisingly opened before he could reach it, probably due to the red contacts on the other side. What was rather surprising was him being bowled over by a Krogan while Jacob was wrestling with another one, winning through armour strength while they snarled at one another. The hand-to-hand went right up until Kasumi blasted the brains out of that Krogan after sidestepping the one that charged her. That third Krogan bore down on Miranda and found itself sailing through the air over the woman's head as she hit it with a biotic Lift before it could reach her. A volley of Phasic SMG and Gauss SMG fire burned through the Krogan's shields and blasted away at its armour and body before she let the carcass drop.

Shepard, in the meantime, had blocked a hook to his face with his right arm while he wrestled the Krogan's left arm, the exchange kept going right up until he kicked the Krogan atop him in the balls. It was discovered that Cybran plating on a boot with hydraulics and pneumatics plus muscle behind it was superior in durability to the typical Citadel-level crotch plate. The plate in question dented almost comically and the Krogan's eyes bulged just before Shepard's helmet sound dampeners kicked in. He blinked as the Krogan balled up in pain, emitting a noise several octaves higher than any he had thought a Krogan able to produce, before putting the poor bastard out of his misery with several Laser SMG bolts directly to the head.

Jacob, who'd just been helped up by Kasumi, picked Shepard's LBR off the ground where it had flown to and handed it back to the Commander, who nodded thanks wordlessly. They proceeded into the next room, now devoid of hostiles, and scavenged some Citadel-grade medi-gel for future sale and some spare parts for the same purpose.

"You come to try to stop us, but we cannot be stopped. We help them, and they help us, the Collectors will make us strong!" A particularly talkative Vorcha shouted, waving its fists as the four strolled into the environmental control room.

Shepard blinked "Okay, anything else?"

"You shall not stop us; the Collectors will make us strong!" Shepard rolled his eyes, apparently the Vorcha had gone back to his kind's usual intelligence level. He levelled his LBR and cut the creature down without another word. His compatriots and the dead Vorcha's friends began exchanging fire, but the effectively unarmoured creatures were miles from being comparable with his heavily armed and armoured Marines. "This feels like a Mary Sue situation, in other words, boring." Shepard commented as they looted the bodies.

EDI's image appeared on the comm. panel of his HUD, and the glowing blue ball started talking "Commander, I have located the necessary consoles to activate the main system, insert the canister of cure here." A yellow nav-point appeared on his HUD. "Then activate these two fan controls." Another two nav-points, also yellow, appeared.

"EDI, you've been playing too much Command and Conquer 3, haven't you?" This was severely reminiscent of how Daniel had been marked with a green nav-point arrow (i.e. Bonus Objective) when he'd approached the guy's location. There was no response "Alright, guys, take cover, I have a feeling that considering how RPG-like my life has been so far, there will be a lot of Blood Pack troops coming in the way we came once I activate this console." Once they were all in cover, he inserted the canister of cure and whirled around with his LBR locked in Assault Mode, watching his Omni and Radar display for threats and his HUD for closer-by threats. "Okay… that's odd, well, let's go for the fan-control room on the left, Kasumi, stay here and stay cloaked, tell us if anything pops up."

"Got it, Shepard." The master thief cloaked and simply stood there, outlined on Shepard's HUD because his Omni could pick her up still through the stealth and cloak. The passive stealth on Coalition units wasn't enough to defeat coalition "Radar" unless they had active stealth, but to all other races' basic longer-range sensors they were absolutely invisible (though advanced sensors could still pick them up). With active stealth and cloaking, Coalition units were completely un-targetable unless by manual targeting or Omni Sensor feed, which few of the other races had even rudiments of.

Shepard turned left, to the fan control room on the right side from the entrance's perspective, and broke in, fighting through some more Vorcha before activating the fan. "Shepard, I'm picking up incoming!" Kasumi reported over comms as the mini-map of the op area lit up with more red hostile contacts.

"That's our cue, boys, double-time it to the main room!" Shepard led the charge that reached the main room just before Blood Pack warriors began spilling into the large room. With their GLMGs set up for very accurate fire and SMGs cutting down stragglers, it was a turkey shoot. "Let's go for the other fans, boys, this is too boring for my tastes… almost wish there were mechs to fight."

* * *

"Plague levels throughout the district are dropping, am prepared to join your squad, thank you for your assistance. Surprised, with reputation of Cybran Nation, it is unexpected that they would send you to recruit non-Coalition races for your mission." Mordin spoke, again extremely fast.

"Well, we aren't xenophobic, it's just that everyone's afraid of us just because we use twined AIs." John said "I'll see you onboard, Doc, sending your omni-tool directions now, thanks, I'm going to talk to others."

* * *

_CSC Normandy II, December 27, 3870_

Mordin blinked rather rapidly, craning his head to look up at the huge bulk of the Coalition Destroyer. "This is your ship?"

"Yep, that's her, the CSC Normandy II, or just the Normandy." Shepard said, grinning "you'll like it, I promise, lots of room and gear to work with, but not a lot of people."

"Hmm, interesting, what are those huge hexagonal arrangements of barrels at the front?" it was incidentally above one of the entrances to the ship, which was on the "chin". "Ship to ship cannons? They're quite large…"

"Oh no, those are NOT our main ship to ship cannons, Mordin, you can ask our crew to show you a holo of the ship later, you'll see what we use, this is a Destroyer after all, not a frigate."

While they were cycling through the airlock, Jacob talked to Mordin about the situation "Collectors are kidnapping entire human colonies, we need to stop them, sure, we could do it ourselves, but we needed someone to make sure the Salarians would actually realize the significance of the threat and its connection with the Reapers and force the Council to act. You can pull it off, because it's not any one of our races' survival at stake here, it's all of us."

The Airlock had cycled and they started walking down one of the wide hallways "Alright, sounds reasonable. Ready to work. Just need a lab."

EDI chimed in at this point "We could easily outfit one of the many spare rooms onboard for him, one moment… completed, storage bay number 1 outfitted to perform all necessary functions of a laboratory."

Mordin frowned at the new voice "A VI? No, too many speech inflections, too sentient sounding, too autonomous, an AI? Unexpected, but not entirely shocking, this is a Cybran ship after all."

"I am EDI, I control the cyber-warfare suites of the Normandy, welcome aboard, Professor Solus. I hope you enjoy your stay aboard the Normandy."

"Alright, have feeling will have my 'scrawny amphibian ass'" This was the first time Shepard had seen or even heard of a Salarian using air quotes "shocked off though. Wonder if this is good for life expectancy, am old for Salarians, you know."

"Do you want a tour of the ship first?"

"Certainly, would like to see what other scientific marvels can be found onboard."

"Do you have a feeling this is a bit familiar, Commander?" Joker said over the comm.

"How is that so, Joker?"

"Just like last time, our first major mission after going through a Mass Relay from where it all begins results in us recruiting a Doctor onto the team."

"I guess so…"

Joker realized the topic was unwelcome "Oh, right… sorry."

* * *

A/N: I hope Mordin doesn't die of shock…

* * *

John shrugged, standing next to the nanolathe in the main cargo bay "Sorry, I cannot tell you exactly how it works, but rest assured, anything you design can be manufactured with it. The only reason we haven't collapsed the galactic economy yet is because we don't want another conflict. The Coalition's factions, all of us, are tired of war."

"Understandable from the history you have given me on the Coalition. A thousand years of war… effectively instantaneous replacement of entire armies, incredible…" Mordin shook his head as he glanced at the massive war machine that was parked in the cargo bay as a ground vehicle, to be deployed by Restorer AA Gunship when and if needed. "Far worse than Krogan Rebellions or even Rachni Wars…"

"I agree, though we effectively kept going back and forth over the same two-thirds of each faction's territory. Every time one of us got close to obliterating another, the third would attack us directly, relenting in their consistent offensive against the one we were hitting, so it would go round and round, though the core worlds saw battle far less often than the border worlds, every planet in the whole of Coalition Space has seen battle at least a couple dozen times in the course of the Wars."

Mordin shook his head, jaw moving up and down "That… that's, incredible, one thousand years and no one quite managed to wipe out anyone else."

"Yeah, according to statistics though, calculating the projected population by birth rates and comparing it to the actual population, it has been estimated that the rather low-density human population at the end of it represented less than a millionth of what it could have been without the Infinite War, and then that got cut in less than half by the Seraphim War."

"In other words, since you have effectively unlimited resources, your population could have outweighed the rest of the galaxy put together by this point but is in reality far less than the population of any one of Salarians, Turians or Asari?"

"Yep, that about sums it up, now, let's see what armour and weapons we'll get you… I'd say you've got some Engineer leanings, eh? So probably…"

* * *

A/N: Couldn't resist giving Mordin a good shock with the weapons.

For the record, believe it or not SupCom units are FAST. 288 km/h (80 meters or 4 map grids per second) on an 81 km map means nearly seventeen minutes for a Loyalist to walk all the way across. Also bear in mind that it does take a freaking LONG time for things to go anywhere on an 81 km map, hence why people tend to go for construction of game-enders or strategic bomber fleets.


	6. To Save Some Mercs

A/N: Ah, finally, let's see a non-walkover again… though things would still be like playing on casual with every bonus you can think of, it won't be so epically stomp-ish for the most part.

Sorry, but no Zaeed or Vido, since it's only been four years since contact and the Blue Suns have been around for a LOT longer than that.

I know I miss some parts of dialogue, it's what happens when you don't own the game (I recently got ME 1, then figured out my computer was too crappy to run it without lagging so badly I have to assault snipe) and don't want to look up every bit of related video on YouTube. However, having Mordin talk on and on makes him seem too distracted all the time.

Jentha is hot? (According to TRK209 she is, but I don't see it) I guess I won't mind letting most of the human women and even Asari live… if they don't deserve to die. Now Jedore, or the other hand, is seriously worth saving (see http:/images (dot) wikia (dot) if you want to know why I say so) from my perspective. In fact, I think she outranks Miranda in beauty, at least her face does (in Miranda's case, can you say "bleached"?).

This one warns you there is an overarching storyline that will eventually be revealed in its entirety (hence the names for some of the unnamed NPCs), and I guarantee you'll look back and wonder "Now why the hell did I never notice that?" That being said, I appreciate Honest Criticism (include suggestions if means of fixing are not immediately obvious).

* * *

Chapter 6: To Save Some Mercs

OR To Stop Garrus From Having Too Much Fun

_CSC Normandy II, December 27, 3870_

Mordin Solus was checking over his dark blue armour, with yellow circuitry outlines, that he'd been fitted with. Shepard had called it a "Seraphim Light Armour." When he'd taken his trusty Carnifex, which he held onto for nostalgia's sake, and shot it in the arm, however (he hadn't put that gauntlet on yet, obviously) the personal shields barely registered a sliver of shielding being taken off by the Hand Cannon. The result was that the Carnifex quickly became a decorative fixture on the lab wall, over the main entrance door, as opposed to an actually used weapon. Of course, another result was that Mordin considered "Light" a bit of a misnomer.

Satisfied that everything was in place, Mordin decided to go with the weapons Shepard had picked out for him and quickly read the necessary manuals and rant he needed tutorial programs so he'd have a good idea what he was doing. The SMGs' dual-barrelled designs were absolutely ingenious in cutting the recoil even for the Gauss SMG, which was horrifically powerful for the designation. The Phasic Pistol's technology was also quite powerful in that it required large amounts of energy, put out by his armour's Quantum Core. Shepard had warned him about what would happen if the technology leaked to the Galaxy too quickly, another Infinite War, but on a much larger scale, would absolutely ravage Council Space as the technology and the larger-scale nanolathing it permitted spread. From the historical records, Mordin was strongly inclined to believe the man.

Then Mordin practiced setting up, firing and taking down his Light Plasma Cannon, the Heavy Weapon Shepard had picked out for him. It was akin to his Omni-tool's Incinerate ability, but it was far, FAR more effective at setting things alight and could fire faster, making it a support weapon to be deployed for defensive engagements, but still useful for offence in "Tower Creeping" style. According to Shepard, EDI would show him what Tower Creeping meant when they had spare time.

"Kasumi Goto is reporting in." EDI intoned over the PA, causing Mordin to take his cue and begin packing up the weapon and its tripod.

"Alright, EDI, put it on, Mordin, Jacob, Miranda, be ready to go in the forward boarding bay in two minutes."

Kasumi's voice blared from the speakers "Shepard, it's a bloodbath out here! I can see Garrus sitting there with his Tomcat Autogun set up and absolutely mowing down anyone trying to cross the bridge. I'm not in his Omni range so he can't see me, but any attempts to snipe him have been met with his LBR, set up next to the Tomcat on the top floor of the building… hot damn he's even sniping the heavy troops before they can fire on him effectively! You better get down here and pick up the guy soon or he'll end up depleting Omega's population! The bridge to his warehouse hideout is already piled with bodies two or three deep in some places!"

"Alright, Kasumi, We're on our way, just two more minutes, let's hope the number of bodies… oh my Fucking GOD!" Shepard shouted the last part as every ground crew member's chest holo-console opened up and showed tactical footage of the three hundred meter long bridge that was over twenty meters wide and absolutely covered with blood, organs, body parts and shattered armour plates, piled into mounds to form protective hedges of cover in places. "Alright guys, let's get Garrus out of his killing spree… and get him off his combat stim high." There was even blood and body parts falling over the sides as Garrus fired into the few that still moved after he first cut through them with the support weapon. "We have some mercs to save… Mordin, I'll teach you how to use the cloak and QP Pack later, for now, you should get used to the amount of firepower you'll be wielding relative to the mercs."

* * *

_Afterlife, Omega, December 27, 3870_

Thanks to their active camouflage capabilities, no one noticed the five of them were wearing Coalition Marine Armour. The three walked up to the recruiter, holding their weapons loosely, it took a short time for the man to notice them since he was talking to someone else. Shepard rapped his Gauss LMG on the counter a couple times. "I hear you're recruiting to take down Archangel?" He growled dangerously.

The Batarian man (they, humans and Quarians were similar enough that they referred to members of the other species using the same words they used for their own) looked over his disguised armour and nodded approvingly "Yep, 500 credits on signing up, more when we're done. You a freelancer?" He then looked over to Miranda and stared for a moment before looking away at a tap of her gun in her hand. John turned too and nearly snorted, the active camouflage had apparently painted Miranda as wearing the black-and-white skin-tight cat-suit she wore on the Normandy when they weren't in armour, though there was a conspicuous lack of any logo on her shoulders. It wasn't much of a question why the man had stared for a moment.

"Yeah, have a bit of a grudge to settle with the guy." _Like how you've slacked off by letting the mercs build the hedges of bodies in the first place, didn't your mother teach you not to play with your food if it's still nominally dangerous, Garrus?_ Shepard thought, though that had never stopped himself from doing it before.

"Alright, talk to the guy over by the transportation station when you're ready to join the main force, when you get there, you'll get your up-front credits. Good luck, guys, I gotta go talk to someone else now."

"See ya." Shepard started walking toward the exit of the room before a young man came in, looking to be no more than late teens, with an old-fashioned pistol from before the thermal clip revolution.

"I want to sign up to…" The kid didn't even finish before Shepard stopped him with a firm hand on his chest. "What are you doing?"

"Kid, I'm going to stop you right now from making one of the last mistakes of your life, do you any idea what the body count for Archangel is by now? It may be the third day of the siege but he's still going strong." No doubt Garrus used his suit's auto-pilot software to sneak catnaps, might not be as efficient as doing it manually but gets the line held for a bit while you take a break. Shepard thought "You don't want to end up a pile of shredded guts and blood, trust me, so, I'll resolve your problem for you." John grabbed the kid's pistol and before he could protest, gripped hard with the full strength of his armour, crunching the gun into a useless pile of broken, twisted parts before letting go and letting the pieces of plastic and metal fall to the ground.

"You… you…"

"Just saved your ass, kid? Damn straight, see you around sometime, boy, learn to survive long enough to be a man." John gave the kid a hard slap on the back as he left the recruitment room, his team trailing behind him.

* * *

"So, Mordin, what can you tell me about the Eclipse, Blue Suns and Blood Pack?" Shepard asked as they waited for the transport to take them to the main merc base. "Don't worry, your external speakers are muted whenever you get a transmission, I'll go over how to use your armour to maximum efficiency later."

Mordin nodded inside his helmet, though Salarians learned fast, it wasn't THAT fast… "Unusual they would work together, Eclipse and Blue Suns each other's primary business rivals. Blood Pack known for forming few and at best tenuous alliances." The Salarian said quickly. "Eclipse primarily Asari and Salarians, with some humans, employ extensive tech and biotic support with LOKI mechs being used often. They are more covert than the armoured warfare tactics of the Blue Suns and Blood Pack's frenzied horde tactics, but also easiest to deal with once you get past the biotics. They have the best equipment of all three merc factions, buying Gauss Rifles from Raider Industries and K-12 Punisher Grenade Launchers, though not the version YMIRs are equipped with. The Blue Suns, on the other hand, often use YMIRs for heavy firepower and have other heavy weapons in their arsenal more often, though they are of lower quality. The Blood Pack uses horde tactics and psychological warfare more often, and has the most motley of the three factions' weapons assortments, but they are hardly very weak either especially since they've begun to purchase higher-end weapons for their elite troops. The troops you encountered in the slums were _not_ their best troops. Those have been focusing on 'Archangel' and his squad, now that his squad's up and disappeared, just him."

The transport slowed as Shepard turned his head to look at the Professor with his optics "Wow… do you ever stop to take a breath?"

"Sorry… I… will… try… to… talk… slower…" Mordin drawled out before reverting to his original pattern of speech "never mind, no time, let's see what the mercs are up to." Once again, Shepard was reminded of a Coalition Marine on combat stims from the speed at which the doctor spoke.

"Alright, Doc, don't bother with the slowing down part, but watch out, don't want you asphyxiating in the middle of a battle after all."

"Of course, Shepard, understandable."

"Commander, I am detecting no other ways in to Garrus other than the mercs' route, picking up a pair of YMIRs, a small army of LOKIs, and a A-61 Mantis Gunship though." The last one would be a tough target, it was one of the Hierarchy Army Gunships, and so it would take quite a few Nanodarts to tear to pieces. "I do believe you can sabotage them before leaving, though. There will be enough time before they rally the next wave of attackers."

"Alright, EDI, will do, talk later." Shepard called, there was a nod, or rather bob, of approval from the holographic sphere's displayed image before the transmission window closed.

They headed over to the Eclipse room, where Jaroth, a Salarian, was talking with his lieutenants over the infiltration team's progress, Shepard's eye narrowed "Kasumi, nab that data pad." Said data pad abruptly vanished from its carelessly discarded position under Jaroth's seat as Kasumi, cloaked, grabbed it and returned to the team in the shortest amount of time Shepard had ever seen without the use of QP Packs. "Let's see… ooh, Aria's going to want to see this… might make her more friendly towards us too."

They walked around, grabbing credits from unattended data pads wantonly and nabbing various goods before they came to a Diagnostics Room where a pair of YMIRs stood, deactivated. Shepard selected EDI's channel on his holo-console "Hey, EDI, can you re-program these two? And maybe the LOKI's too?"

"No problem, Shepard, I will be happy to do so, however, the LOKIs in the area are all activated so I can't hack them… the Raiders built their stuff too well."

Shepard nodded "You can say that again, according to my files Dominic Maddox thinks Swann is a genius, and that's saying something considering Maddox is one of the most tech-savvy commanders in the Coalition Armed Forces right now. Anyways, hack those two YMIRs and we'll see about everything else later."

"Got it… done, Shepard. The last stage before entering the area is to find and sabotage the gunship, which I've marked on your HUD with a nav marker."

"Thanks EDI, Shepard out." The blue globe in the comm. window bobbed in a nod before the window shut off with the transmission ending.

They walked on to the room with the gunship and a hatched ceiling that could open as needed. "Hello, we're freelancers, could you point us to where we're going next?"

The Batarian pointed, not looking up from the armour plating he was adjusting "Over that way, through that doorway, but don't go yet, wait for the signal…" He paused, pressing a hand to the side of his head to indicate reception of a transmission "oh, there it is, alright everyone, go for Archangel, now!" The freelancers rushed out of the room in a wave "Get a move on, guys, I need to finish fixing up this gunship…"

Shepard nodded "You work too hard." He levelled his LBR and pointed it at the back of the Batarian man's head before blowing it clean off with a trio of laser bolts. "Come on boys, let's move, we should show we're friendly to Garrus." He proceeded to do just that, grabbing his GLMG off his back before heading out the doorway and vaulting over the barricade, and then opening up on the mercs ahead of them, cutting through their weak shields and armour like it was not applicable. The squad followed, also going up and over the barricade, firing as they went.

* * *

Garrus Vakarian's mandibles widened in surprise as his eyes fixed on the squad listing panel of his HUD, it listed Mordin Solus, Miranda Lawson, Jacob Taylor, Kasumi Goto and John Shepard. Apparently when James had contacted him a little over a year ago he'd been right. Garrus snorted as he stopped firing, it was pointless and would only pose a friendly fire hazard to Shepard's shields. However, Garrus did keep an eye on the Radar and Omni readout as well as looking around, using his HUD's radar and omni linkup to check for anyone tunnelling under his warehouse. He spotted someone and rolled his eyes before checking the 3D schematic of the building he projected from his wrist, they were still along way off, more than enough for Shepard to come in and for them to blast their way out if they felt like it. "Howdy, Shepard!"

"Hey Garrus!" The voice was the same as it used to be, as expected, but still it was a bit of a surprise to hear someone who was supposedly dead for two years. "Been watching to many cowboy movies?"

"Uh, no, I just picked up that line from one of my old team members."

"Oh… right, how are they doing now?"

"Meh, They're all safely off Omega, hopefully Sidonis doesn't mess his part up."

"That's great… ah, there, the last freelancer, watch out Garrus!" Garrus saw the green outline on his HUD at the last moment and ducked.

A man-shaped dent appeared in the far wall before a suit of Cybran Heavy Armour, looking like a miniaturized Cybran ACU, de-cloaked and pried itself out of said dent "Damn, Garrus, you didn't even let me give you a good brotherly tackle-hug."

Garrus snorted "I didn't want to do anything hazardous to my health, you mean. So, Shepard, how's resurrection treating ya?"

"Not all that great, I mean, the old crew's scattered all over the place now. Tried to recruit Tali when I met her, got shot down, the rest, well, I'm gathering another crew now."

Garrus cocked a brow, his armour cocking an optic light "Saving the galaxy again?"

Shepard grinned and nodded "You got that part right."

With a chuckle and a shake of the head Garrus shifted his grasp on the Tomcat Autogun's dual firing handles (it required dual palm power interfaces to maintain maximum firing rate, otherwise it would be at 75%) and blasted the head off a LOKI in two shots, the first popping its shield and badly denting the armour, the second blasting it clear off. "Well things never get boring around you, Shepard, I'm in, but we'll need to eliminate the three mercenary groups attacking this position first, too lazy to cloak and fly right now."

"I should have known." Shepard chortled good-naturedly before slapping the UEF Heavy Armour on the back, then pointed to a spot a short distance from Garrus, able to cover the stairwell and the bridge at the same time "Mordin, set up your Light Plasma Cannon over there. You're about to get some live targeting practice."

The Salarian took one look before moving off "Excellent tactical positioning, Commander, proceeding now."

"Alright, boys, let's get this show on the road, Kasumi, Miranda, either cover us or do death from above, if you want some LMG or BR practice, you can swap with me or Jacob, we'll do those jobs if you don't want to."

Needless to say, Jacob and Shepard found themselves basically sitting around doing nothing while Mordin and Garrus laid down a murderous field of suppressive Plasma and Gauss weapons fire. Miranda and Kasumi were picking off the enemies they missed rather gleefully with the LBRs. "You know, it's a real pity how many Eclipse Heavies and Vanguards are dying out there." Shepard said, zooming in with his HUD.

Jacob frowned as he watched another somewhat top-heavy Eclipse Heavy be blown in half as a Tomcat Autogun round ripped straight through her and into those behind her "Why, sir?"

"It's just that they're heavy in more ways than one, it's a waste… since when did I notice this sort of thing?"

"Since Miranda fixed your equipment and set your libido to healthier levels?" That earned the man a glare and he just shrugged, still looking at the Radar/Omni readouts.

"Don't remind me… hey, you know those guys trying to tunnel under us, they'll be in for a nasty surprise, eh?"

Garrus spoke from his station "Shepard, I think you should see this, they've had enough and they've sent in a pair of YMIRs!"

"HOLD FIRE!" Shepard hollered before the heavy weapons could begin whittling down the shields of the mechs. "We've hacked them, let them do the work for us."

It took an absurdly long time for the mechs to go down, since Kasumi and Miranda kept on sniping the Eclipse Heavies. So, Garrus napped, as indicated by the three Z's that appeared on his status indicator in the Squad panels of the others' HUDs. Shepard twiddled his fingers, since contemplating his death and resurrection and how his reunion with Liara would go would distract him too much at the moment.

Having lost a lot of his troops, Jaroth eventually entered the battle, cuing everyone to fire on him at once, sure, he had reinforced shields, tech armour, and excellent armour, but under weapons designed to engage masses of enemy infantry… he didn't make it halfway across the bridge "I think we figured out why he left that data pad out where anyone could take it, he was an idiot."

Mordin transmitted next "Agreed, embarrassment to Salarian race, that one."

Garrus asked Shepard specifically over the squad channel "Does he always talk so fast?"

Mordin shrugged in the HUD display's video feed "Of course, no time for anything slower…"

BOOM!

Another shrug as the base shook "Case in point, what was that?"

"Aw shit, everyone except Mordin, down to the basement, those explosives we heard them mention when we were wandering around, they were damned breaching charges!" The group jumped down the railing from the second floor of the warehouse to the first before taking the stairs down, or rather flying down the stairs. "You two, hold the line here!"

"Will do, Shepard. It's Blood Pack this time, EAT LEAD!" Garrus jammed his thumbs down on the firing studs of the heavy weapon, feeling the power flowing from his suit into the Gauss weapon, forge itself into mass, and launch itself at hypersonic speeds.

Mordin started talking even while he too fired his Light Plasma Cannon, which used higher-yield munitions at lower speeds, though raw armour penetration was far less, it was better against softer targets and for splash damage from explosions on impact "Technically not lead but according to manuals osmium-iridium composite round with ferrous portion designed for…"

Garrus cut the talkative Salarian off "It's called a figure of speech, Mordin. Shepard, the three shutters you need to close to secure the basement should already be marked for you, good luck."

Shepard ran for the first shutter, laying down a field of fire from his GLMG as he approached, cutting into and through the Vorcha that tried to flood the gateway. He activated the gate controls and waited for it to count down even while throwing out murderous volumes fo fire from all the squad's weapons. The shutters slammed shut once the countdown finished without further ado and they charged toward the southern shutter "Kasumi, pop any explosive canisters you can see near enemies, we'll keep them tied up."

"Understood, Shepard." What ensued had Shepard, Jacob and Miranda instinctively twitching slightly as if to shield their faces from the large amount of explosions that suddenly rocked the room and the flying body parts.

Someone's severed head, blasted free of its helmet and still frozen in an expression of horror, bounced off Miranda's helmet and found itself mounted on one of the lower "wings" of Shepard's helmet rather grotesquely, while someone else's leg, or a piece thereof, whacked Jacob across the shoulder.

"Threat board's clear…" Miranda said slowly.

Shepard, after removing the head from his helmet, glanced at his Radar/Omni field and did a double-take inside his helmet at it "Kasumi, are you trying to tell us EVERY SINGLE MERC WAS NEAR A EXPLOSIVE CANISTER?"

The Master Thief de-cloaked near the shutter and began firing through it while waiting for the countdown until it closed "Yes, no one ever said anything about Blood Pack being very smart."

Shepard ran up and began suppressing the charging horde with gunfire "Right. Jacob, Miranda, head for the northern shutter, we'll join you when this one's done." It is to be noted that of all the non body-piercing weapons, the Gauss Light Machine Gun (GLMG) is perhaps the most effective at mowing down advancing enemy infantry. Hence, with Shepard's GLMG and Kasumi providing dual SMG support, they held the shutter long enough for it to close with a thunderous crash. "Let's move, Kasumi."

"Though you'd never ask, come on, let's boost over there and see what those two are up to."

* * *

Jacob and Miranda had been using QP Pack boosting tactics to get over enemy cover and to fly into cover when needed, since apparently the Blood Pack had been equipping some of its elite Krogan warriors with Gauss Rifles purchased from Raider Industries. "Lost over-shields." Miranda called as she slid behind a piece of cover while using her biotics to lift another Vorcha and throw him into a charging Krogan's legs, causing them to both stumble and fall almost on top of an Electron Grenade she'd bounced off the wall a moment ago. That served as an excellent fragmentation device as the other mercs covered their heads almost instinctively as the bits of armour plating ricocheted off the walls.

"Stay down, Miranda, they're bringing in K-12s, and those are dangerous if you don't have over-shields." Sure, Personal Shields could handle the impacts just fine, but if they got through to the structural fields… well, they were rated to overcharge enough to take land unit fire without throwing you around, but that meant they were more vulnerable to smaller ordnance, and it would be a risky proposition for an unshielded Marine to up against a K-12. Raider Industries (read: Raynor's Raiders) had only modified the things to self-fabricate missiles, with a five-shot magazine capacity and one new missile fabricated per four seconds, though they could fire off the magazine at a rate of one per second.

Miranda frowned as she threw a Warp at one of the Blood Pack Heavies before he could get a volley off toward her, flaying him alive with the rapidly destabilizing mass effect fields "Jacob, I don't need babysitting." She gunned down another heavy with her SMGs using gun cam even while he tried to fire at her, an exercise in futility if there ever was one, since the missiles weren't quite manoeuvrable enough to turn fast enough to hit her and instead slammed into the floor behind her barricade.

Jacob popped back up with his own heavy weapon, an ULPA this time, and began throwing phased plasma bolts straight back at the Blood Pack Heavies who were closing in on Miranda's position while the Blood Pack Warriors kept her down with a solid sheet of Gauss Rifle fire while charging. Miranda was doing her best to fire back with her own ULPA, but it wasn't going well, since there were simply too many of the Krogan… and they had bayonets. That was not a healthy proposition if they got too close and found the weak points of her armour, since structural fields didn't deal well with melee attacks.

Fortunately for the dark blue armoured Cybran operative, Jacob managed to distract the Blood Pack troops' attention for long enough for her to cloak and boost above the line of fire, moving back behind the Blood Pack wave while Jacob was reduced to hiding behind his barricade, firing using gun cam while he was charged by a noticeably smaller horde of Krogan and Vorcha. Miranda waited until the last of the horde was by her before starting to volley grenades, throwing out one of her two Sonance Grenades and three Electron Grenades before hefting her ULPA again and firing one-handed while her other hand dealt with stragglers using her Gauss SMG.

Jacob almost managed to cut down all the charging foes, except for one Krogan who managed to vault over his cover and knock him to the ground before putting its full weight on the Gauss Rifle, roaring as it fired down at Jacob's face plate, the rounds ricocheting off the flaring personal shields. Miranda was about to join in the fray and shoot the Krogan off when she noticed the green and red contacts entering the area from ahead and behind respectively.

"The Cavalry has arrived!" Shepard yelled as he and Kasumi came on the scene, well, close enough to sort of see what was happening.

"Lost shields!" Jacob yelled as his arms strained to hold the entire weight of the armoured creature above him and prevent the bayonet from heading for his neck helmet joint. He drew back one arm, noting how precariously close the muzzle of the rifle, still spitting hypersonic munitions, was to his face, and how close the bayonet was to him, and punched the creature across the face before it could wear down his structural fields and kill him. The Krogan's weight shifted just enough for Jacob to throw it to the side before blasting it away with his biotics.

Shepard whistled as the other man put a volley of bolts into the now definitely dead Krogan "Damn, Jacob, that was impressive."

Jacob kicked the dead creature one more time before nodding brusquely to Shepard "Miranda, why didn't you help me?"

"I knew you could handle him on your own, besides, I needed to keep that bunch." She pointed at a group of now very dead Vorcha "And their K-12s off our asses."

"And you couldn't have spared one shot to get that Krogan off me first?"

"That would have allowed them a chance to fire missiles, Jacob, and we can't afford letting them ruin the mission."

"I really don't understand why…"

Miranda frowned and leaned in closer as she helped Jacob to his feet "Why what?"

The man shrugged "Nothing much."

"Now that you're done having a lover's spat, can we get back to the shutter problem?" Shepard asked "let's move…"

They advanced, cutting down more Vorcha and Krogan as they went, Jacob at the rear to let his fields and shields regenerate. There was one minor incident though… when boosting around a corner, Shepard accidentally ran over a Blood Pack Flamethrower Trooper, with the result of sending the Vorcha flying and then turning him into an incendiary grenade with two shots to the fuel tank, setting more advancing Vorcha alight as the fuel splattered onto them before igniting.

Once they reached the last shutter, their armour trailing wisps of smoke from too many K-12 and Gauss Rifle hits having stripped away shields and scorched the paint jobs even with structural fields turning back the vast majority of damage, they shut it down while gleefully showing the Blood Pack trying to get through the tunnels exactly who was boss.

"Shepard, Garm and his Blood Pack troops have breached the base on the main floor! Mordin is busy mowing them down, but they just keep on coming over the bridge! And they're suppressing us with missile launchers!"

Shepard and Squad started double-timing it back to the stairs, watching Garrus and Mordin's status bars take the occasional hit. "Do they have varren?"

"Yes! A whole lot of them too, never thought I'd be so glad someone brought an SMG for an in-close weapon."

"Alright, troops, grab some Gauss Rifles instead of reclaiming them! The bayonets are gonna find some use…" They quickly grabbed some Gauss Rifles and packed their own weapons in their armour "CHARGE!" Shepard yelled as they stormed up the stairs, Shepard putting the bayonet through the head of the first Vorcha he met, holding down the trigger and feeling the weapon work at maximum potential with his glove feeding it power. In the hands of non-Coalition or Raider personnel, it would only fire at 50% maximum rate, a security measure Raider Industries built in to ensure if they were ever raided for equipment they'd have a clear upper hand even without counting the Raider armour they employed. The bullets ripped the top of the creature's head off and tore another's head off its shoulders before it could react. Yanking the gun up ripped it free of the Vorcha's head, which left the corpse to slump to the ground while Shepard fired on more enemies. Miranda and Kasumi were doing the same while Jacob focused on the varren, shooting and stabbing them and even bludgeoning a few that got too close.

The squad blazed, hacked and bludgeoned their way through the Varren, Vorcha and Krogan on the ground floor while Mordin turned his attention from firing downward to fighting the enemies that had gotten upstairs. After a particularly brutal melee against the last three Vorcha that tried to bar their way, slashing the Flamethrower Trooper in half with the bayonet and setting it ablaze before hacking the other two's heads off, Shepard charged up the stairs and buried the still-burning bayonet into the back of a Blood Pack Warrior, who screamed just before Shepard ended his life with a burst of Gauss Rifle rounds.

The Krogan and Vorcha on the upper floor found themselves caught in a massive crossfire of pure death, right up until Shepard noticed the approaching gunship symbol "Gunship incoming! Take cover!" He yelled while grabbing his Infantry Nanodart Launcher. The others similarly discarded their Gauss rifles and reclaimed them while grabbing their own heavy weapons, volleying grenades to kill the remaining Krogan on the top floor. "It's covering the advance of Blue Suns Infantry! Use grenades to kill the idiots if you need to! Mordin, Kasumi, Garrus, focus on the gunship! Miranda, Jacob, keep the infantry away!"

"You got it, Shepard!" Jacob called out as they turned their attention away form the Gunship, which was doing its best to dodge the Light Plasma Cannon, Tomcat Autogun, and Infantry Nanodart Launcher fire being thrown at its shields, without much success, though the machine gun fire it put out wasn't too weak either, managing to keep the squad more or less suppressed and behind cover, though this didn't do much as they could still fire via gun cam, and Mordin and Garrus had set up barricades around their deployed heavy weapons. Also, the machine gun wasn't all that accurate, so it was rather difficult to hit the Marines behind cover and any hits were deflected from the weapons by shields.

After Miranda and Jacob pushed the mercs back from the main floor, the gunship managed to move to a side where Garrus wasn't covered, its rocket pod hatches opening menacingly as Tarak broadcast over loudspeakers "your reign is at an end, Archangel, time to die!"

"Garrus!" Before John could finish the sentence Garrus had already activated his armour's Hunker Pod, encasing him in a solid dome of armour, forged from materials reclaimed from his surroundings, and covering him with a gently rippling shield dome that took five rockets before it popped. The dome shattered after five more, and Garrus's over-shield absorbed the last two anti-infantry rockets without a sweat. "Heh, should have known you'd be used to using that."

"Right, well, Tarak, eat this!" Garrus resumed firing his Tomcat Autogun once the armoured shell had collapsed.

"Blue Suns, CHARGE THEM!" Tarak hollered from his gunship just before another voice cut in.

"Belay that order, fall back, fall back!" It was a woman's voice, commanding and authoritative.

"Jentha… this is betrayal!" The gunship faltered in mid-air as another pair of Nanodarts stripped its shields away and hammered away at its armour.

"Enough of us have died already, Tarak, I'm not about to let you throw our men's lives away! Archangel has a bunch of Coalition Marines supporting him, can't you see that?"

"You'll regret this… you'll—" Whatever he was about to say was cut off by the gunship blossoming into a fireball in mid-air.

John cranked up his speaker output "She'll nothing, Tarak. Anyone who wants to live, leave now, if you try anything, you will die, just as hundreds of Blood Pack, Blue Suns and Eclipse troops have today. Scram, now." He growled dangerously, and the mercs on the bridge looked at one another and ran for their lives. "scare them a little, but don't kill anybody who's running away."

The squad proceeded to make quite a racket before the warehouse district grew deathly silent "Garrus, your energy reserves back to full yet?" It was well known that Hunker at full strength required 75% of the energy reserves of a UEF Heavy Armour (energy storage upgrades simply increased the % number of energy storage for armour, so things work out fine).

The Turian nodded, scratching at a place on his armour where the blue paint was scratched a little from flying debris. "Yeah."

"Great, now let's fly out to the Normandy. Remember to cloak too, it's not that far, we'll get there just fine. Mordin, I've got the course and stuff plotted for you, everyone, just relax and let the suits do the work."

* * *

Garrus tilted his head back "So… It seems we have a much, much, MUCH bigger tub but more or less the same old crew."

Shepard nodded, also with his head tilted back "Yep, right down to Gardner, Ken, and Gabby. Too bad you're the only member of the old ground crew other than me so far."

"Yeah… what are those sets of giant rotary barrels on the bow?"

"Why has everyone I've recruited so far asked me?"

Garrus shrugged "Because they're freaking huge and are in-line with the ship, and cannot manoeuvre, so they gotta be something interesting…"

"They're Ravager Plasma Chainguns."

"The same as on Ravager Point defences?"

"Yes."

"But they're rather… huge!"

"I seem to recall you saying something similar when you saw your first ACU."

"So, the simulators were to scale?"

"Yes, hence the size of…" Garrus's "neck" lights indicated his mandibles were twitching in shock when John looked over "Garrus? Damn, I think I broke him."

"Should I grab Chakwas?" Jacob asked, looking at the UEF Heavy Armour that was just standing there doing nothing besides ticking its mandible indicator lights.

"Nah, he'll get over it."

* * *

A/N: Who next? Jack or Grunt? Hmm…

I feel even sorrier for Tali; the Normandy was a 150-meter long corvette with roughly a dozen crewmembers in total. The Normandy II is going to have squad members outnumbering the ship crew, and it's a 400-meter long, 80-meter wide, 50-meter tall ship (Destroyer classification) this time… though she won't notice the loneliness and ghost ship-esque nature as much for obvious reasons.


	7. All Jacked Up

A/N: Kasumi and Lair of the Shadow Broker are definitely in; Firewalker's a maybe, Normandy Crash Site YES, Overlord HELL NO. My favourite faction in SupCom is easily the Cybrans in case you haven't figured it out yet (the CAR should give it away easily, or else I would have put a heavy weapon called the Way Converter that makes them follow the Way or something). And also my favourite is Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance. The Original SupCom had too much power to experimentals, the sequel not enough (and wasn't a rate-based economy), FA was just right for me.

* * *

Chapter 7: All Jacked Up

_CSC Normandy II, December 27, 3870_

Miranda looked up from her console as Shepard came in the door "Hello, Shepard, we should probably be going after our next Dossier soon, either Jack or Okeer… Convict or Warlord…"

Shepard silenced her with a raised hand "We're not going anywhere for now, I've told Joker to park us a safe distance from Omega for now."

Miranda frowned "But sir, what about the Doctor's directions?"

"Miranda, there are a few things I've learned about life… I want to talk to you about one of them. Yeah I realize you're quite a bit older than I am, probably closer to my mother's age than mine, but I can still tell you this: You need to learn when to rest."

Miranda raised her eyebrows in feigned surprise "With all due respect sir, I know when to rest, in fact, I always get at least seven hours of sleep a day, not that I need that much."

"Exactly, you always get that much sleep in a day, but you need to learn how to not cram missions unless absolutely necessary, right now, it's not absolutely crucial that we head straight for Purgatory. In fact, I'm not sure even Mordin, being a Salarian as he is, will have entirely settled in yet, so I'm not doing any more missions today, we've already gone to the Citadel and Omega today, and we've picked up three new ground crew members. That's enough for one day, Miranda, learn to relax and rest when you can."

"Shepard…"

John silenced her with a wave "Don't try pulling a Mordin on me and saying there's no time to just sit back for now. You should come out and talk to the crew, live a little, life's not all about work, you know."

Miranda rolled her eyes "Whatever you say, Shepard."

John nodded approvingly, faking dumb about the eye-roll she'd given him "Good… So, what are you doing on that console?"

Miranda shrugged and gestured to the holographic screen "Typing up a report to Doctor Brackman."

"Alright, when you're done with that, I want you to come down and chat with the crew in the mess hall during dinner-time instead of just taking it back to your room, if at all possible." Shepard had observed her tendency to take her dinner alone in her room instead of socialize, and that wasn't good for squad integrity. The Mess Hall was the usual hang-out for any and all crewmembers not on duty (in Gardner's case, his hang-out, period.) and who wasn't feeling a need for privacy in whatever they were doing on their holo-consoles, which all of them carried around just like they carried their personal computers.

She nodded rather stiffly "Understood, Shepard, it was nice talking to you."

John knew a dismissal when he heard one "Nice talking to you too, Miranda." It may just have been him, but he could swear the door closed a bit more violently than usual behind him after he left.

* * *

It was nearly dinnertime, and Shepard was talking to Garrus in the cargo bay "So Garrus how's the new girl for you?"

"It's got a hell of a lot thicker armour, that's for sure, and the forward auxiliary fire control is really interesting with the gigantic barrel assemblies on either side."

"Glad you like it, that where I should look for you usually?"

"I wasn't finished; this cargo bay beats the crap out of the old one, and ZOMFG I did not expect to see THAT as our land vehicle…" Garrus jabbed a thumb over his shoulder.

"Let me guess, it's really big from your perspective, just like the Rhino was back on the first Normandy."

"Well, duh."

"So, Garrus, should we go up to dinner?"

The Turian gave his friend a surprised look "I don't swing that way, Shepard."

Shepard facepalmed "Well, you're free to stay here and miss dinner. I hear Gardner's gotten better at dextro-amino food. And even if I went for Turians at any point in my life, I sure as hell don't now."

"Are you serious? That guy could work magic back on the first Normandy if I didn't annoy him, and he's gotten _better_? I must see this. Oh, and Shepard, as for the last part…"

"I know the line, Garrus," John put up air quotes "'If you've had it blue, nothing else will do', right?"

"Yep, now have fun waiting for the elevator." Shepard had just noticed his friend was no longer contemplating the massive machine they would use for armoured warfare when the elevator door shut.

"NOOOOOOOOO!" Shepard shouted, fervently pressing the call button and hoping that if you…

"Commander, I must regret to inform you that if pressing the button twice does not make the elevator prioritize you more, and nor does pressing it three or four times, one should be able to come to the conclusion that pressing it a thousand times will not make it get to you any faster."

"Ugh, EDI, you just had to pop my bubble of faith, didn't you?"

"Joker taught me." The electronic voice actually sounded rather proud.

"Great…"

* * *

"Hey Miranda, how's the food?" Shepard sat and started digging into his own meal, looking up at Miranda expectantly.

Miranda finished chewing before she swallowed and spoke "Excellent as always, why do you think I strongly recommended keeping Gardner as Mess Sergeant when we were considering your new crew roster?"

John blinked before swallowing his food "Uh… I was thinking for the same reason as why Ken, Gabby, Chakwas and Joker are still around on my new crew?"

Miranda shrugged "Well, it was partly that, and the fact that the quality of food can severely affect crew performance."

John frowned. _Is it all about the mission with this woman? I can see why Jacob's interested in her but she's not interested in him. Then again, she has a point._ "Huh, well, I can't really argue with that, can I? If the food tastes like ass then… never mind." _Yeah, because Liara really liked it when you nipped at her butt, and if her bum cheeks were any indication food that tastes like ass wouldn't be bad at all_ "If the food tastes like shit, then most of the ground crew will be too busy trying to hold their stomachs in to shoot straight, right?"

"That was kind of the point, yes."

"Good, see, lunch down with the crew isn't so terrible, is it?"

"Maybe, maybe not. I'm not interested in talking about it right now, I need to finish my meal and get back to work."

"Fine, I guess we can talk later, Miranda."

"Alright, Shepard." She went back to eating her food in the sort of etiquette only Aeon ever used when it wasn't necessary.

John's eyes narrowed slightly, watching her eat while he himself dug into his food in a similar manner to Jacob, who was at the farthest table from Miranda as possible "Are you Aeon?"

Miranda swallowed, and then bit out icily "No, I work for Doctor Brackman. I'm a Cybran Nation citizen, despite my lack of implants."

"Alright, alright, no need to get mad about it. I guess I'll go eat somewhere else."

John was cleaning up his tray of food when Miranda spoke next, snorting "And you wondered why I usually eat in my room. People are always scrutinizing everything I do, down to the littlest detail, and they can always find faults no matter how hard I try."

John froze and started spreading his tray out again, biting his lip in understanding "Sorry, Miranda, I didn't mean to annoy you…"

"But you annoyed me. Shepard, did you know that with all the time we put into you, Doctor Brackman shot me down in flames when I suggested giving you a control chip so we could be sure you were working for the best interests of the Coalition?"

John nearly sprayed his stew, then wiped his mouth on his sleeve before slamming both fists down on the table "You WHAT? I'm surprised Doc didn't fire you for that, you know what it feels like to be under the Loyalty Program?"

Miranda shrank back noticeably into her seat as the Cybran towered over her, circuitry flaring orange in fury "No… not really…"

"I'll tell you then, an equation with a result of 1.33382 returns as 1.33381, this changes the result of all higher judgemental processes in that train of thought. We know it to be wrong but the Loyalty Program prevents us from reaching a different conclusion. We will reach different conclusions, so we end up basically mind-controlled, get it?"

Miranda frowned as she processed the information "So the reason the Loyalty Program worked is… a math error?"

"No, your brain is purely organic, unlike that of a typical Cybran. Back before the Liberation Matrix reconfigured our implants, those under the Loyalty Program still had the implants that could input data as well as output it. Hence with the program they would reach different conclusions. The conclusion of those under the Program's influence was valid for them; the conclusion of the free Cybrans was valid for us. Neither result was an error per se." Shepard suddenly found the classic response to be a bit inadequate for explaining to one who wasn't familiar with the Loyalty Program's way of working "An analogy, those under the Loyalty Program say one is less than two, freed Cybrans say two is less than three. Is that sufficient?" an awkward moment of silence later "I should go, see you around, Miranda." John began packing up his food to take to Jacob's table, as far from Miranda as possible, when her hand closed around his upper arm.

"Wait, Shepard, I never took the time to look too much into the Loyalty Program's history? How bad was it?"

Shepard looked off into space, narrating what he had seen in the archives of the Network "When the Earth Empire first unveiled it… according to the archives, since the Cybran Network was and is based on quantum communications servers, and back then we didn't have enough firewalls and hardware limitations, most changed within a day, isolated Cybrans would remain unaffected until they rejoined the Network. It was only Brackman's isolation from the network, his timely creation of the Liberation Matrix and the sacrifice of many Cybran lives defending his lab during its development that allowed him and his closest Symbionts to flee and form the Cybran Nation." Shepard paused, disengaging from the Network and glaring at Miranda "And here we are today, invulnerable to psychic or psionic attack, fortified against all viruses and such, with hardware limitations to keep us in control of our own bodies, and you DARED suggest a fucking control chip?"

Miranda was not an easily scared person, but the tone in which Shepard finished, full of blood, ice and steel at the same time, frightened her enough for her to say in a very small voice "I'm sorry, Shepard."

John took a series of deep breaths "I understand, Miranda, you didn't want your pet project i.e. me, to turn on you… but I still recommend you un-learn some Aeon manners and start learning Cybran ones…" He grabbed his now packed dinner and stalked off, shaking his head and muttering "how the hell you got high enough in the command chain to answer directly to Brackman I'll never know."

Miranda frowned to herself. _Why did I feel so ashamed when he berated me like that?_ She thought, she didn't have an answer, so she simply set the question aside and went on with her meal.

* * *

"Hey Mordin." Shepard said, drumming his fingers on the tabletop behind which Mordin was working at his console.

"Hello Shepard." The one-horned Salarian replied in greeting.

"How do you find the ship?"

"Coalition technology entirely unlike anything Citadel Races have yet seen, understand importance of not revealing nanolathing technology as of yet, Citadel Races not yet psychologically mature enough to handle it, would only result in interstellar war. I find this ship fascinating, Plasma Chainguns, odd how no one in Council space thought of that as a solution for cooling issues inherent in plasma weapons."

"Uh, okay Mordin, anything else?"

"Eager to be in the field again, Coalition Marine Armour incredible in capabilities, would like to use it more often. Discovered that stealth of Marine Armours is entirely sufficient to deal with seeker swarms of Collectors even in large numbers. Not much else to report on as of yet, except that Gauss Rifles collected do not seem to be of the same developmental liens as Coalition Gauss Technology."

"That's because they were specially designed for export, Mordin." It was more or less the truth.

"Hmm, reasonable, and they will fetch good money when we sell them on the Citadel, considering how they seem to have become all the rage on the market in more recent times and how production numbers are still quite limited apparently."

"Well, I'll talk to you later, Mordin."

"Goodbye, Shepard."

* * *

_Purgatory, December 28, 3870_

"We are well equipped to handle an armed guest, even though he is a Coalition Marine. After all, we hold some of the worst criminals of the galaxy; the governments pay us to hold them." Warden Kuril said, waving Shepard through. Unbeknownst to him, all five of Shepard's current ground team members were following him, cloaked and in Kasumi's case perched on his shoulders to not be seen and to provide support if necessary. Jacob was carrying Miranda to lessen their space taken, Garrus was carrying Mordin much to both their irritation and they were all using their QP Packs' hover abilities to nullify their weight and the weight of their armour. "As you can see, we are a maximum security facility, each of these pods you see here is a self-contained cell which may be ejected if necessary. I've popped a few to make a point in my time."

There were large robotic arms moving the cells, and three were moved to the walkway further along. "Now, Jack's coordinates have been sent to you, and we'll release her to you once we get the credits from the Cybran Nation." A nav-point popped up on Shepard's HUD, and the Normandy relayed sensor data on how to get there fastest, hence a glowing trail appeared on the floor in his HUD.

"Well, guys, let's move."

Garrus was looking around inside his helmet "Shepard, remind me never to come see you if you ever open a travel and tourism business, this place is a whole shitload worse than Omega… say, thinking what I'm thinking?"

"Blow this place to hell? Sure am thinking it, Garrus."

"I've been in some bad places, but this… this takes the cake, that and the prisoners the planets really can't handle and pay them to deal with."

They walked across a window to one cell, following the plotted route, before Shepard stopped and backtracked. "Hey, you do know that…" He said to his squad slowly.

"Torture during interrogation pointless, subjects will confess to anything to end it. Yes, that is correct." Mordin said quickly, the transmission only going to squad helmets and completely silent to the outside.

Shepard, though his helmet didn't move, nodded on the comm. window "Yeah, so you gotta wonder why they're doing it."

"Not all races have simulator technology as advanced as the Coalition's, Shepard, we should get moving, the guards are getting suspicious." Garrus stated, looking about.

"Well, let's go then, though I have a bad feeling about this ship…"

Kasumi winced "I think you just jinxed things, Shepard, never say you have a bad feeling when on a mission, it just makes things worse."

"Yeah well, hey, look, there's a prisoner we can talk to. Hey, you, where are you going?"

The worn-down man raised his head and glanced around furtively "Haven't you heard of how this place works?" Shepard shook his head "the warden sells prisoners to make extra income, man. Could you buy me? Please? I don't care what you do with me, I just want to get out of here, I won't cost much, I swear." The Batarian man turned all four eyes on Shepard with a pleading look.

"Uh… I'm here to get Jack."

The man faltered in his step and nearly fell as he blanched "J-Jack? Never mind, forget I ever asked anything."

"What is it about Jack that has you spooked?"

"Oh man, she's an Engine of Destruction, like Odin if you want a human reference, she kills without a second thought, pops biotic abilities like popcorn and she's psychologically unstable. If it was a choice between being near her and death, I choose death."

Shepard nodded "Huh, sounds like the sort of person we'll want to have for our mission."

The man glanced at the logos on Shepard's armour and his knees started shaking "Oh, and according to what I've heard she has some nasty-ass history with the Cybran Nation that I don't even want to think about, rumour has it they used her for experiments…"

"We'll cross that bridge when we get there, I need to go."

"Good luck with Jack, you'll need it!" the Batarian man called as Shepard and cloaked squad moved away from him down the hallway.

Jacob spoke next "What's with him? He nearly pissed his pants when we mentioned we were here for Jack."

"I don't know, but I think we're about to find out." They had reached the door to Out Processing.

"Go to the door at the end of the room, that's where Jack is." The tech at the door said plainly.

They went to the door, which revealed one of the cells in a room on the other side just before the door closed "Shepard, Shepard, surely you must realize that a formerly dead Spectre is too valuable to leave without a price tag…"

Shepard cut the asshole off "Well, Warden, I expected that" Then he cut to squad comms only in transmission "Garrus, Kasumi, uncloak! Get into cover!"

The doors behind them formed a perfect kill zone for the squad as mercs streamed in. once they were all down, the squad moved back toward the door in search of the controls that would release Jack, who was detected as being in the cell in a nearby cryo area. They moved toward an access tube where Blue Suns mercs were coming from as EDI directed them, firing as they went. Gauss weapons fire peppered the walls and splattered the technician at the control booth across the controls before Shepard walked up and overrode security for the whole prison ship just before the squad collectively gaped at the three YMIRs that were activating in the room. _They need that much to keep Jack in line? Wait…_

* * *

Jack slowly woke up from stasis sleep and pried open her eyes, looking around and figuring out immediately that she was aboard a maximum security prison ship… _Purgatory_ she thought in disgust before flaring her biotics and shattering the bonds holding her wrists and ankles to the inside of the stasis pod. A series of beeps announced the activation of three mechs of some sort… no matter, she would deal with them.

* * *

Shepard's right eye and optic twitched slightly as he watched the stasis pod rise and the prisoner inside break herself out "Jack is a woman?"

"It would seem so, if those leather belts across her chest are any indication." Garrus commented dryly.

"Full marks for observation, Garrus, anything else you'd care to share?"

The woman that registered as Jack let out a roar of fury at the three YMIR mechs activating in front of her and became a blue blur as she charged them. The resulting mess was so dust-filled and ground shaking that Shepard could have sworn he could have followed the convict's progress by the cloud of dust she threw up… and at least one YMIR mech that went up, bounced off the ceiling, and smashed down on one of its compatriots. The last one finally stumbled and fell, destroyed, as a large hole appeared in the flimsy wall from Jack breaking out. "Wow… three YMIRs, not fully booted shields but whatever… let's follow her, guys, the chase has begun!"

"All Blue Suns troops, riots have broken out and Jack is loose, STOP THEM! STOP HER! TAKE HER DOWN BUT DO NOT KILL JACK!" Kuril called over the comm.

Garrus snorted "He's an embarrassment to Turian-kind at this rate." He said as they walked forward, following the trail of destruction Jack left behind her.

Jacob snorted "Hallelujah, tell us something we don't know." He bent down and looted some credits off a dead guard "He won't need these."

"Wow, another hole in a wall, it's not a very strong wall, but still… someone's pretty pissed…" John whistled as he surveyed the carnage before opening fire on the guards who were trying to shoot the prisoners. Sadly, the prisoners shot at them too "Damn, they're shooting at us too? Kill them, kill them all!" Shepard shouted as he ducked under a K-12 Missile Launcher round. "Aw hell, a YMIR…" Shepard pulled the Infantry Nanodart Launcher from his back and prepped it before popping up and firing two rockets, putting the YMIR and everything else in the room permanently out of commission. The group grabbed what credits they could from the area before moving to the corridor between cell blocks grabbing credits and medi-gel there too.

A nearly identical cell block, which meant additional liberal application of heavy and longer-range weapons, greeted them as they moved through the door. They shot their way through a trench until they came nearly face to face with another YMIR. This time, it wasn't as easy, since the mech started off with a rocket to Shepard's face, sticking its arm inside the over-shield as it punched him in the chest, sending him flying backward and his Infantry Nanodart Launcher tumbling from his grasp, powering down as it went. "Ow! Kasumi, light him up!"

The Master Thief cloaked just before the YMIR could fire at her again, with the result that it hit Mordin instead, who blinked as he realized his shields had gone down by a relatively small amount considering the power of a missile. He then threw himself back behind cover as the second rocket whizzed by overhead just before a huge explosion announced Kasumi's firing of a Nanodart, a second later another large explosion announced the death of the YMIR.

They grabbed credits off dead soldiers and wall safes alike as the advanced through the next hallway. Opening the door they saw Warden Kuril using his Gauss Rifle to cut down rioting prisoners who were on a lower level. They were noticed a moment later. "Shepard… I may have failed to take you, but I will get Jack back!"

Shepard laughed "Bullshit. Kasumi, volley with me!" They raised their Nanodarts and fired… only to be stopped by a fortress-type shield "Shit… those generators are allowing him to regenerate too fast, guys, take them out. Go, GO!" _This is one of the times when I really wish our weapons weren't so absurdly strong that it makes our enemies develop this type of shield…_

"I do the hard things civil governments don't have the guts to do! This is for the good of the Galaxy!" Kuril shouted as he fired down at them, bracing his dual Gauss Rifles against the railing of his catwalk

Miranda and Jacob went for the generator on the left, Garrus and Mordin for the one on the right, and Kasumi went with Shepard for the center one. After trading fire from cover with small hordes of mercs, using their heavy weapons to clear the way and blast the enemy's cover, they got close enough to target the vulnerable parts of the generators. A Warp from Miranda killed the left generator, a pair of Nanodarts from Shepard and Kasumi's launchers shredded the center one, and the one on the right went down to twin Overload pulses from Mordin and Garrus. They cleared out the remaining mercs, including the warden himself, who had seemingly pulled dual K-12 launchers from nowhere. Shepard ducked behind cover as the Warden popped up and released dual rockets in his direction. Then he cursed his medium over-shield radius setting as the rockets smashed into the top part of the spherical bubble, dealing some damage to it despite not being direct hits. "Miranda, slap his ass with a Warp! Garrus, Mordin, Kasumi, take down his back-up!"

"You got it, Shepard, Jacob, cover my… never mind." Miranda caught herself just before she would have said "ass" or some synonym thereof, since any sane man would have agreed effectively immediately.

"Gladly." Jacob stood up and opened up with his ULPA, attracting the attention of the remaining mercs as well as the Warden himself, including more than a couple K-12 rockets. "Miranda, please hurry, my over-shields…" She let off a pulse of biotic energy before ducking back behind cover. Jacob did the same with regards to cover. "Never mind."

"It's over, Kuril, you're going down." Shepard snarled just before swinging around his cover and letting loose with his Nanodart Launcher. Both soldiers let loose with their rockets at one another, but what tipped the scales were the much larger yield of Nanodarts and the much more powerful shields and armour Shepard was equipped with. Kuril disappeared in a huge explosion with the last Nanodart, there wasn't enough left of the Blue Suns to salvage…

Jack had apparently reached the airlock they were moving toward, slamming the guards into the ground before they could so much as lift a finger against her. Shepard's crew were leisurely strolling toward her when she spotted the Cybran logo painted on the bow of the Destroyer, which was almost the length of Purgatory itself and her biotics flared in anger, her fists bunching. A Batarian guard behind her began reaching for his pistol feebly before Shepard raised his Gauss Pistol and nailed the guy in the head.

"Who the hell are you?"

"I'm Commander Shepard, John Shepard, that ship out there, it's mine."

"Why's there a damned Cybran logo on the prow then?"

"I'm Cybran, and we're on a mission for the Coalition, Brackman's funding us, we're here to recruit you."

"Brackman…" Jack's eyes narrowed and she shook in rage "why the hell would I want to work for you? You show up in a Cybran Destroyer and want to recruit me? Do I look fucking retarded to you?"

Shepard shrugged "If you want to refuse the only way off this crate, then go ahead, Jack."

Jack bared her teeth "Fine, but I want access to the Cybran Network's files onboard."

Shepard pretended to think for a moment "that's not unreasonable…" he nodded "No problem, come with us, I'll make it worth your while."

Miranda cut in "You sure that's a good idea, Shepard? How can we be sure she isn't some convoluted Spec Ops infiltrator for the Council or something?"

"You don't look Cybran, cheerleader, you're Aeon, aren't you?" Jack's voice, her slim beauty and the inflections of her voice made it fairly obvious which faction she was most likely from "How does it feel to be used by the Cybrans, huh?"

Miranda didn't deign to reply, so Shepard stepped in "Enough, let's get off this ship, I've had enough of this place. Jack, I'll give you access clearance as soon as we're onboard, a note of warning though, the elevators will only allow you to go to the Crew Deck, Range, Engineering, CIC and Loft, the ship's just too huge for the small crew. Don't get lost."

"Piss off, let's get going."

Shepard grunted before opening up the airlock and entering the boarding umbilical the Normandy had lathed between itself and Purgatory for the purpose "As you wish."

"For the record, nice ship, Shepard." Jack stated as they walked into the shadow of the rather sizeable warship.

"That she is, Jack, that she is."

* * *

"Pods are ejecting from all over Purgatory." EDI reported as they reached the bridge.

"I can't say Kuril was right in what he does, but it's true, the ship is maximum security for a reason, some of the worst scum of the galaxy are in those pods." Jack said coolly.

"You have a point, Jack, some criminals don't deserve second chances, I'm not about to let serial rapists and killers loose. Joker, authorizing weapons free… take them down, and destroy the ship."

"Understood, Shepard. Zealot missiles are away and seeking. Oblivion Cannons, Dual Plasma Beams and Heavy Proton Cannons are engaging now." The ship's PA made some noises indicating the weapons were firing, much as an ACU would give you noises to indicate weapons fire when you zoomed in far enough on the battle area. "Purgatory is breaking up under our weapons fire, should we continue? All escape pods have been destroyed."

"Keep going, Joker, until there are no more bio-signs."

Joker frowned and turned around "Shepard this isn't like you…"

Shepard leaned his blood-red optics closer to Joker's face "Do as I say, Joker, or have you not watched The Dark Knight?"

"I get it, Shepard, lighting the pieces up now, firing… Purgatory has been destroyed, no survivors."

"Alright, Joker, we're done here, jump out of the inner system. We'll talk later, EDI, give Jack the clearance to access Cybran Nation archives." Jack raised her eyebrows slightly in surprise at Shepard actually following his promise.

"Access granted, Jack, we have prepared one of the crew suites for you, please follow the hallway lights, thank you."

Jack had a momentary look of surprise which was replaced by annoyance "An AI, huh, Shepard? Well let me tell you something, I'm not interested in your crew quarters, you'll find me at the lowest point of the ship, Shepard, EDI, any suggestions?"

"The room between the cargo bay and engineering should do fine, Jack, and it is the lowest deck on the ship. Stairs provide access from Engineering and a door leads from there to the cargo bay." EDI's electronic voice intoned. "I have lit up the necessary hallway floor panels to guide you, enjoy your stay, Jack, and also, I have outfitted the rooms to Coalition crew habitation standards."

"Got it, going now." The tattooed convict disappeared.

* * *

"So, Garrus, what do you think of our newest recruit?"

Garrus had his head stuck in a console he was apparently designing, building and testing, tweaking something, so his voice was slightly muffled "Probably more violent than Wrex ever was, more dangerous too, I don't think you should talk to her too often, Shepard, she might get annoyed and tear you limb from limb."

Shepard bit his lip pensively "Yeah, but I have a feeling there's something more to her than just violence and the mask she wears…"

"And the ink?"

"What?"

Garrus pulled his head out of the console "I said: and the ink?"

Shepard slapped a hand to his forehead "Oh, you mean her tattoos?"

"Yeah, did you notice how little she was wearing?"

"To be honest I couldn't tell where the tattoos ended and where the clothes began."

"You did notice she had a few belts across her chest and that was it?"

Shepard looked at his friend in a new light "Never figured you'd be into human women, Garrus."

Garrus sighed "I'm not, but everyone is into Asari, and human women look enough like Asari that I would at least notice that part…" the Turian's eyes widened and he looked at Shepard "What did they do to you? When they resurrected you, did they change anything about you? It seems like you failed to notice Jack's state of dress…"

"Heh, as I said before, I couldn't see anything, couldn't even tell where her tattoos ended, hence I noticed nothing. And yes, something did change about me… Miranda fixed the damage Ashley did."

The Turian frowned "Wait, what damage?"

Shepard gaped for a moment "You mean Kaidan never told you?"

Garrus shrugged "Yeah, come on, tell me about it…" he nudged Shepard.

"Alright, I guess…"

* * *

"What happened to him?" Miranda asked as she and Chakwas arrived on the scene with a stretcher, alerted by EDI and Shepard.

John sighed "He fell off his work bench laughing and banged his head a bit hard, that's what, come on, let's get him onto the stretcher. Take him to the med bay for a check-up, I'm going to go talk to the crew."

"Alright, Shepard, see you around."

* * *

"Hello, Miss Chambers."

"Greetings, Commander, how was your day?"

"Not that great so far."

"Was it because of Jack?"

"No, not really, mostly because it's only just starting to sink in how much things have changed on the last two years. Garrus is a lot different from how I remember him, seems less cheerful most of the time, though still cheerful enough to fall off his chair and hurt himself laughing." Shepard rolled his eyes "But I want to know about yourself, Kelly, what exactly do you do on the ship?"

"I'm the ship's psychologist, though officially I'm your 'Administrative assistant'" the pretty redhead made air quotes at that "I evaluate crew performance and inform you of any concerns, oh and I also do this sometimes…" She gestured toward the console.

Shepard tilted his head "What is 'this'?"

"I believe the traditional phrase is 'you have a new inbox message, Commander'."

"Oh…" Shepard's optics blinked owlishly a few times "doesn't my computer pod have that functionality?"

There was a slightly awkward silence "Uh, yes, but sometimes, a direct reminder works better, according to Doctor Brackman."

"Huh, well, what do you think of the ship?"

"It's great, my first time in space and I get duty on a Destroyer… with Commander Shepard! My friends were so jealous when they heard about the crew roster…"

_She's got some major mood swings going on there…_ John thought "What's so special about me? Why were you excited to serve on my ship?" _Ah good, dodged the "serve under" euphemism…_ John smiled at his own success in avoiding innuendo.

Apparently Kelly thought the smile had something to do with her excitement to serve on his ship, "I feel welcome in the crew, and I feel like if I closed my eyes and fell backward, you'd be there to catch me." The smile on John's helmet lights instantly disappeared. _Looking back, that question was a bit personal… and it was easy to misunderstand… I need to get out of here._

"I should go, I'll see you around, Kelly."

"Goodbye, Shepard."

* * *

Apparently the e-mail had been from the kid he'd stopped from signing up on Omega, thanking him. He finished reading before he reached Gardner's station. "Hey, Gardner, how's life?"

"It's been alright, good to be back in action with you again, another mad quest to save the galaxy eh?" Gardner grinned while flicking the wok he was using a couple times to move the food around before using his spatula to move the food around.

John sighed and looked down at the deck "Yeah, almost feels like old times already, talking here in the kitchen with you."

"Now if only we had the old ground crew back onboard… I bet you'd be a lot more cheerful then, wouldn't you?"

John shrugged "Probably."

Gardner smiled widely "especially since you'd have a certain blue archaeologist with you, eh?"

"I'm hoping we can get her onboard after this first round of recruitments."

The Master Chef shrugged "I'm hoping so too, and ideally get Ash and Kaidan back from whatever mission they're on right now, that would be nice… but Shepard, you do realize it's been two years, right? People have changed somewhat…"

"Any news I should know?"

"Ash and Kaidan are going steady and living together, and back when I was working at the Procyon CGC between these two commissions I heard him talking with Ariel Williams about proposing."

"Huh, well, good for him then, what about you and Chakwas?"

Gardner stilled for a moment, looking down at the sizzling stir-fry "We dated for a couple months about a year ago, and then Andrea decided she wanted a break, so here we are. And I don't think this is the traditional Aeon break before the couple spends the next few decades to centuries together, I think it's the sort of break where people go their separate ways afterward, either that or the sort where one side has no idea what they're doing together." He shook his head as if to clear it, and then went back to his work.

Shepard leaned on the counter "I think that you should give her some time, then figure out a way to get back on her good side, try not to pressure her though."

John leaned back as Gardner reached over to grab some dried spices before sprinkling them in the food and stirring them in, shaking his head. "Shepard, I respect you and all, but you've never dated an Aeon woman, they have an instinctive need to be dominant, if you try going back and trying to get them to take you back, it _will_ make them feel pressured and you will get your ass dumped very quickly."

"Alright, Gardner, but remember that like EVERYONE else, even Aeon women will occasionally feel like leaving their partner to make the first move, don't let the Doc slip through your fingers, Gardner. After all, according to you back on the first Normandy, you haven't been with anyone since your family was caught in the blast radius of a Sinntha Strategic Bomber's Zhanasee Strategic Bomb back in the Seraphim War" That had been just before Seraphim Separatist Iazyn ASFs arrived to take the air fleet terrorizing the city down. It was odd that that was a strategic bomb while the much more powerful Ahwassa munition was the Othe _Tactical Bomb_… but whatever. "You're still young, Gardner, go for it."

The other man growled in irritation before grounding out through tightly-grit teeth "I'll thank you for that, Shepard, now please leave before I 'accidentally' mess up your food and make it taste like ass…" the Master Chef frowned "wait, right, I overheard Liara and Ashley talking over dinner about your tactics once, so… sewage, better."

It seemed he'd touched a nerve "See you around, Gardner." There was a growl before Shepard left, just in time to avoid becoming the target of a small pan Gardner had pulled out of the cupboard.

* * *

"Hey, Miranda, what do you think of our newest recruit?"

For the first time Shepard could remember, Miranda was speechless for a moment before replying "Shepard, she's a psycho, a ticking time bomb, I don't know why the hell we would want her aboard."

"Well, Miranda, I agree, but the problem is, Doc Brackman thinks she'll be useful to have with us, so…" John trailed off, sure, Doc Brackman liked being respected, but he usually abhorred the sort of mindless obedience Miranda seemed to display, and he'd actually told Shepard in a message to try to make Miranda think more about her orders.

Miranda seemed to be deep in thought, since either she was wrong, or Doctor Brackman was, neither had happened on such a major thing before "Alright, then, I'll try to work with her, but I really do NOT appreciate the Cheerleader comments."

There was a short silence before John spoke again "Uh, I'll see you around, Miranda." _All you'd need to be a cheerleader would be pom-poms, Miranda… just the way you dress onboard the ship… yeah._

* * *

"Hey, Mordin, anything interesting?"

"Have been examining on-board technologies and contemplating meaning of life, in addition to training with weapons in Range." The Salarian rattled off.

"Anything on Jack?"

"Jack, dangerous convict, biotics spikes off the charts, have not witnessed similar power before outside of the older Asari Matriarchs, ever."

"Well I have." _Liara had that sort of power levels, I think…_

"Hmm, well, surprising that you would have interacted with a Matriarch's biotics. Most who are under attack by one would not survive."

"Well I guess I got lucky." _Believe me, I got lucky. Shockingly, Liara was happy enough with someone as average as me that her mother didn't even give me death threats._

"Agreed, now, experimenting with Collector seeker venom, sorry, talk later, thank you."

* * *

Shepard knocked on the door and it opened, so he simply walked in carrying his package "Hey Jack, how's the search coming?"

The convict grunted, sitting up on her bed "Slow, damned Cybran researchers never implanted me with the hardware to patch straight into the Network, so I'm using the search functions manually. What do you want, Shepard?"

"I wanted to talk."

Jack threw her legs over the side of the bed "About what?"

Shepard shrugged "I like to get to know my crew a little, that's all."

"You're sounding like a pussy, Shepard, man up."

"Heh, we'll see if you still think so after the next mission."

"We'll see indeed, Shepard, now fuck off, I need to go back to searching through these damned files."

"I'll see you around, Jack," He put down his package "brought you dinner, enjoy."

Jack simply grunted before picking up the food container and looking at it in suspicion "How can I be sure…"

Shepard rolled his eyes "If I wanted to kill you, I would have done it on Purgatory, Jack, I want your help, there is no reason whatsoever for me to even want to raise a finger against you." He snatched up some of the food and shoved it in his own mouth. "There, better?"

Jack snorted "Yeah, you wouldn't raise a finger against me, you're not a biotic, or not much of one from what I can sense."

"Nope, just a plain old Soldier classification."

"Figures, only Soldiers would be brash enough to let me onto their tub like this, and give me license to wander around."

Shepard looked up at the ceiling for a moment "Whatever you say, Jack, I'll see you later."

"See ya, Shepard."

* * *

A/N: Please note that the land vehicle the new Normandy uses is extremely symbolic for ME 2 in more ways than one. FEEL FREE TO GUESS WHAT IT IS IN REVIEWS! (I accept anonymous reviews) The vehicle will be revealed shortly after first going to Ilium.

I can see Shepard having a huge sense of déjà vu when he starts talking to Legion… That's not even to mention when the subject of the soul comes up.

Anyone see the Age of Empires 3 and Starcraft 2 references? (There was only one of the former and two of the latter.)


	8. Mad Scientist Number Two

A/N:Anyone notice how they have green eyes for Miranda in Mass Effect Redemption or at least my torrent download for it but in the game she has dark blue eyes? Hence in my fic/canon her eyes will be green instead, fitting her background better. For info on her background, please go back to the Skyllian Blitz chapter in SupCom: ME and read the part where she's on Akuze as part of the research team.

For the record, my Krogan are a lot taller than in canon, but they usually are hunched at least somewhat, so that makes them not seem much taller than Turians, who are also quite tall.

* * *

Chapter 8: Mad Scientist Number Two

_High Orbit over Korlus, December 29, 3870_

"Jack, Mordin, Garrus, Kasumi, with me, we got another mad scientist to pick up."

"Feels just like last time, eh? We get to go down to a hostile-infested planet with no real knowledge of how this scientist will be or react to us…"

"What are you talking about?"

"Liara, ring a bell? After all, she must have been mad to fall in love with you of all people."

"Hey, I wasn't that bad, Garrus… Liara loved me the way I was and that's what mattered."

"Size matters too, my friend, size matters too."

"Garrus… remind me why I like taking you on my ground crew again?"

The Turian stood a little straighter "Shutting up now, Shepard."

Shepard nodded approvingly "Good to hear it, Garrus." It was good Jack wasn't there yet, or he'd be the butt of much commentary from the convict. Then again, according to what Kelly had said about Jack's case type, it would ensure the convict never tried coming onto him…despite the problem having been fixed… nah, it was too risky letting Jack get on the teasing material.

* * *

_Korlus, December 29, 3870_

"You gotta wonder what's with the talking over a loudspeaker…" Garrus clicked his mandibles as he looked up at one of said loudspeakers.

Shepard looked at his Omni and Radar field "Not picking up anyone in the immediate area… a few up ahead though, no need for cover, just move up until I say so." They did as they were told, then they came under fire from some mercs up ahead. Needless to say, they shot back at the enemies and took them down with ridiculous ease, in small part due to the fact that they had more gun barrels than the other side did, and also the fact that their guns were simply far more powerful.

Once all the red contacts were gone, Shepard frowned as he looked at his Radar "Move up, be careful, we have a yellow neutral contact up ahead."

* * *

"It was nice of you to give the guy a little medi-gel like that." Garrus commented.

Jack snorted "Heh, I would have just told him to find a nice shady spot to hide before he bled out."

Shepard shrugged "That wouldn't have got us as much intel regarding the Krogan wandering around… who we incidentally saw earlier… Besides, it pays to have a nice rep, your enemies will underestimate you, and that will play to your favour since they have no idea how sadistic you can be MWAHAHAHAHA!" Shepard laughed evilly.

Jack stared at the man for a moment with the red helmet optics of her Cybran Medium Armour "Shepard, please don't do that again, it sounded worse than a Krogan trying to recite poetry."

Mordin was tapping his helmet mouth light thoughtfully "Interesting concept, Krogan reciting poetry, should investigate… would like to inquire when you have heard Krogan reciting poetry, would like to meet this Krogan."

"I mean it's more horrific than the idea of a Krogan reciting poetry, seriously."

Kasumi interjected "Hey, guys, we should focus on the actual mission at hand, not on Krogan reciting poetry."

Mordin nodded "Indeed, must admit though, interesting topic."

Shepard facepalmed before entering the next area, looking around "You gotta wonder why there are always these chest-high walls, vehicles… _objects_ of some description, that telegraph the location of the next fight. Get into cover, boys." He himself did as he said.

"I'd say it's because it's easy for people to pop up from behind said pieces of cover." Kasumi herself popped up and relinquished one Nanodart, sending a huge wall segment, along with a Blue Suns Legionnaire, flying before she let out a yelp as her over-shield nearly popped from a trio of K-12 missiles, launched by the three Blue Sun Heavies present. They were well back in the battle line, outside of effective grenade range since anything thrown would bounce off the tops of their cover and away, or be blocked by said cover.

Shepard let out a hum and a volley of laser bolts before being driven back into cover by the Heavies. "Right, that makes sense, but why give us the cover to get into?"

"Bad planning?" Garrus suggested.

"Well we'll make them pay for it!" Jack commented. "What do you say about a boost over, then a Shockwave to take down those Heavies?"

Shepard rolled his eyes "One problem Jack, THERE'S A CEILING! Wait, don't you have Charge?"

The convict blinked "…Right… let's go!" She became a blue blur that streaked toward the enemy line and was there before they could react. Bullets and rockets cut trails around her as she Charged, nimbly sidestepping the rockets and heavier bullets that would have hit her otherwise. Her over-shield was disengaged to prevent unnecessary damage, such as the rocket that passed under her armpit, from being taken. Before the Blue Suns mercs could do anything, she was among them, running past and flinging biotic energy everywhere, hitting people with Warp as she Charged by before ending it with deceleration and throwing the mass effect fields into the human woman with the rocket launcher, sending her flying with a scream and then a crunch as her head was speared through by a large piece of wreckage sticking out from the ceiling, ripping it off to drip gruesomely onto the ground as the now headless corpse hit the ground some distance away. Jack in the meantime had hit the other two Heavies with twin Shockwaves, one on either side, ripping into their shields and armour as the two women screamed in pain. Jack ended it quickly though as she ended their misery with Phasic Shotgun blasts, not even letting the bodies, flung back by the explosive power of the phased plasma boiling their tissues, hit the ground before she moved on, wreaking more havoc while the rest of the squad advanced, firing on the Blue Suns as they went, not bothering to cloak so as to conserve energy.

* * *

Shepard sighed as they moved through the panel the Tank Grown Krogan had moved "Finally, some sanity in this mad place… Kasumi, is your armour alright?"

"Yeah, it'll fix itself given enough time… the worst thing about being almost always cloaked if that you're almost unused to the vulnerability being visible imposes on you…" the Japanese woman grumbled as she checked the paint scorches of her armour, which were slowly repairing themselves after having been caused by various merc small-arms damaging her structural fields and armour. Her over-shields and personal shields had been sheared away by K-12 fire before that happened, which was why her armour was somewhat burnt.

"Your shields and OS recharged yet?"

"Shields and Over-shields are both at seventy-five and rising, Shepard. I'm good to go, but can I at least cloak? I don't feel right being visible like this…" the woman did her best puppy-dog eyes the red helmet optics of Cybran Light Armour could pull off.

Shepard chuckled at the amusing spectacle "Alright, Kasumi, cloak… best thing ever about Cybran Light Armour."

"Nearly unlimited cloak duration? Hell yeah." Kasumi grinned before noticing some credits on the person of a dead Blue suns merc and filching said credits. After listening to another annoying speech from the local Blue Suns commander, Jedore, Kasumi made another comment "Hundreds of reject Krogan? Shepard, why do I have a feeling…"

Shepard looked at his HUD and noted the red contacts closing in on them "That we're about to encounter some reject Krogan, and they won't be as friendly as the one from outside? I agree, get into cover!"

They waited for the hostiles to come around the corner before burying them in a sea of bullets, when the blazing laser and Phasic bolts, and the yellow streaks left behind by Gauss munitions superheated by air friction, even with their friction reduction fields "Mercs?" Shepard raised his eyebrows as he searched through a Turian's armour for credits or other goodies "You'd think with the Krogan problem they'd focus on them, not us…"

"No one ever said mercs were intelligent life forms, Shepard." Jack said, kicking one corpse for, well, kicks before they walked on.

Garrus looked down while walking "Does anyone think it's weird to have a dirt path in a research base?"

Mordin nodded "Agreed, it is odd."

Shepard sighed at the musings of his squad members "Let's get moving guys, we need to finish this job… there's a lot more hostiles up ahead, boys, be careful… since we're outdoors, I'm authorizing infantry heavy weapons."

"Great, time to test out this new baby…" Jack gave a feral growl as she hefted a large, six-barrelled weapon from her back, extended it, and let the barrels spin in their normal speed of five spins per three seconds, though she wasn't firing.

Garrus's eyes widened in alarm and he opened a channel to Sheppard only "Shepard, it was WREX handling a Gauss Chaingun last time, you sure Jack can deal with the recoil?" Sure, the armour recoil dampeners were damned good, but Garrus knew that you could still feel the recoil…

"Don't worry, her armour's detected her weight distribution and will adjust the recoil dampeners as necessary, she isn't about to end up flat on her back from the kick."

Garrus slapped his forehead "right, it's been years and I'm still thinking in Citadel tech terms…"

"You did grow up with them, Garrus, so it's still normal, after all, it's been years and few Coalition citizens have gotten used to the Citadel's tech. Fewer still are the diehards that refuse the Coalition's unity and decide to start off independent colonies in the Terminus… and we can't even protect them since we're not feeling like going to war with the Citadel again. There's already enough blame being heaped on the Coalition for supporting the truth about the Reapers, instead of following the Council, minus Anderson, line of Sovereign being a Geth creation"

Mordin looked over while assembling his Light Plasma Cannon, then picking it up and moving it awkwardly as he lumbered forward with it "Council believes Coalition may attack? Understandable but foolish, if desired, Coalition fleet could have completely taken over the Citadel during the battle with Sovereign. Impossible for Sovereign to be Geth creation, Geth do not have plasma accelerator tech on that scale. Impossible for Council races in their current state to win a long-term war with Coalition, thankfully, the Coalition does not want to fight."

"No one ever said politicians were intelligent life forms either, Shepard, that's what we soldiers are." Jack said, her helmet's mouth lights showing jagged teeth patterns, bared teeth being the expression underneath. "Hey, look, mercs! Let's get 'em!" She shouted gleefully as she brought the spinning weapon up and took aim.

"Wait, Jack! Let Mordin and Garrus set up and/or get into position first. Kasumi, keep on the lookout for hostiles closing in or anything in the air. All ready?" Mordin and Garrus gave him affirmatives from where they were set up behind cover "Let's rock!" Shepard bellowed, charging forward toward the mass of red contacts on his HUD, firing his Temporal Fizz Launcher as he charged, Jack right beside him, spitting out kinetic penetrators at near escape velocity as they moved. Kasumi was holding her Nanodart Launcher one-handed (though this would cut the firing rate to half) while spraying laser bolts from one of her LSMGs. The Blue Suns that tried to confront them were ripped to tatters by Chronotron fields, plasma, osmium-iridium penetrators, laser bolts, and electron-based Nanodarts, Legionnaires, Heavies and Centurions alike died under the onslaught of heavy weapons fire while the three charging Marines kept on broadcasting the roar of thousands of soldiers from their suit speakers. Inside their armour was a whole different story.

Jack was, as expected, alternating between grinning viciously and laughing maniacally as she hosed down the Blue Suns with rounds of immense speed and power, tearing pieces from bodies and shearing many of the targets in half with the pure kinetic energy conveyed in the round. Shepard was enjoying the silence of his helmet, with only muted screams of enemies and his weapons' sound effects the suit having filtered out the war cry from the audio intakes. Of course, he was also doing the "target sighted, aim in general direction, pull trigger, target down from splash, move on to next target, rinse and repeat" routine.

Mordin and Garrus were cutting up whatever mercs the trio missed, using leapfrog tactics to move their clumsy heavy weapons up to the next convenient firing position. "Shepard, I'm sighting Krogan, coming from two paths, upper and lower, the upper path is made of bridges, the lower's on the ground." Garrus reported, since Shepard, Jack and Kasumi were slightly preoccupied.

"Got it, Garrus, you and Mordin keep the ones on the lower path under control, well handle the upper path." With the high-yield nature of Coalition infantry weapons, it was a bloodbath, especially since Jack was involved and Throw was very effective in the limited spaces of the bridges. They eventually (after an absurdly long time and after taking a LOT of fire from the berserk Krogan), reached the end of the horde, smoke rising from their armour scorch marks and structural fields all down by at least half.

After reaching the next, emptied, hallway, the five-person squad regrouped and scavenged for goodies for a moment before scans turned up nothing more. They ventured down the hall to meet more mercs, being forced to switch to lighter weapons since they had gotten indoors and heavy weapons carried a risk of collapsing a building without structural fields. These put up more of a fight, being armed with Gauss Rifles, though the recharged shields of the group held the bullets at bay as they systematically cut down the mercs, using Jack's biotics to great effect as they did so, grabbing mercs and holding them helpless in the air as they were shot… repeatedly.

Naturally, they grabbed every single credit they could from the room and the dead mercs, then the corpses were shot some more by Jack. They climbed up the stairs and continued their slog into the research base.

* * *

A "motherfucking metal mountain" (Jack), "A pile of damned Blue Suns" (Garrus), "An interesting base arrangement" (Mordin), "A lot of defences that would be way too easy to bypass" (Kasumi) and "One hell of a lot of pointless death" (Shepard) later…

"I'm getting out of here… I know how you work." Rana Thanoptis chuckled "Can I tag along?"

"Sorry, Rana, but you'll have to stay out of this one, we can give you transport off Korlus, but that's about it." Shepard spread his hands helplessly "Miranda, Jacob, get down here in the Restorer, we have someone who we're picking up, it's not Okeer, and we'll still be here for a while, but it's an old friend who needs transport off-planet."

"For the record, that wall safe has 4000 credits, use them for whatever you use money for, good luck, Okeer's over in the next room."

"Thanks, Rana, see you some other time!"

* * *

"Personally, I'm thinking we should just kill Okeer, he's no better than Saren or Hitler." Jacob growled as he listened through Shepard's audio intakes to Okeer's ranting.

Shepard transmitted only to the squad "I agree with you, but I wouldn't mind getting a Krogan on the team, namely his 'perfect' specimen."

After an announcement over the PA by a rather pleasant voice, Okeer looked up in alarm "Jedore… she'll kill my legacy with a switch! You must stop her!"

After some passive-aggressive negotiations, passive by Krogan standards, aggressive because Shepard was pushing for concessions, Shepard agreed to go stop Jedore from killing Okeer's "legacy". However, he never said a word about how exactly he would go about doing so.

* * *

"Would be a waste, wouldn't it?" Kasumi commented "If we just let her die, that is."

"Yeah, did you get a good look at her? Better than Miranda, I'd say." Shepard whistled as he took cover from a YMIR's rocket.

The woman in question's voice came over the comm. "Hey, I resent that!"

Jacob opened a channel to Miranda and Miranda alone. "It's okay, Miranda, he's just still pissed about the control chip incident." Miranda completely ignored him and simply closed the channel. Jacob sighed in irritation.

Shepard never noticed the incident "Guys, volley fire, kill the YMIR quickly!"

"You got it, Shepard!" Jack yelled, as she was the first to swing around her cover and unleash two consecutive Shockwaves before she opened up on the staggering YMIR with her Gauss Chaingun. The YMIR focused on her with its gun missiles, but she paid it no heed as it would go down before she would, from the combined fire of all her allies.

The machine might not be as durable as the typical Coalition Marine in shields, but its armour was quite tough still, and took several rounds before being blown through by their guns. The YMIR's left knee went out first, and the machine leaned on its side and elbows as it kept up the gunfire it poured out. Jack saw her shields drop below half before someone finally blew the machine's core apart and the wreckage fell to the ground with a mechanical death-groan.

"Damn it, destroy the Krogan tanks, or they'll keep coming!" Shepard didn't know why the hell the Krogan escaping from the tanks had shotguns and armour, but it was beginning to develop into an actual threat as somewhere between seven and ten would decant at a time, all armed and ready to fight. They were distracting the group from Jedore, who was firing on them with twin K-12 Missile Launchers

Fortunately, after a while, the flow of Krogan stopped, the tanks had run out, apparently. "Kasumi, go around and knock Jedore out!"

The other woman sensed the pistol whip coming and turned quickly enough to have the hit glance off her tech armour before she batted Kasumi's cloaked arm aside and fired point-blank at the other woman's armour with her pistol, causing the shields to flare slightly and reveal Kasumi's position just before they ended up in a fistfight.

Unsurprisingly, due to her wearing a helmet, Kasumi won through a right hook knockout after exchanging quite a number of punches that dented Jedore's arm plates whenever she blocked. It was a hard fight, but superior armour, strength and speed eventually won out.

EDI came over the comm. "Okeer's lab is filling up with toxins, his life sign is fading fast. Recommend immediate extraction of Okeer."

Shepard had begun issuing orders before EDI was even finished "We're going, I'll grab Jedore, guys, boost at full speed back to the lab!" He picked up the unconscious soldier and basically threw her over his shoulder as the group collectively boosted off back toward the lab.

"Emergency vents engaging." The station's automated systems came on after the announcement.

"How are things, EDI?" Shepard called to his comm.

EDI's slightly robotic voice rang again "Bad, Okeer's most likely gone already, let's hope we can get something out of this whole fiasco…"

They reached the lab and Shepard nearly bowled Garrus over where he'd stopped "Okeer's dead." The Turian whispered and turned toward Shepard. "But his console's still working."

"Let's see what he has then."

"Shepard, I do not know what the Collectors have in plan for the human colonists you spoke of, but I will help you as you have tried to help me. Please, take and protect my legacy, this perfect Krogan… this Grunt…"

"Traditional Mad Scientist, eh?" Jack nudged Shepard.

Mordin turned his yellow optics toward Jack "No more than I am, Jack."

Jack rolled her eyes and optic lights "Which means roughly one hundred percent Mad Scientist, Mordin, you're not helping yourself."

Shepard called Jacob and Miranda, parked nearby in the Restorer. "Okeer's a no go, but we have a package to pick up, and it isn't exactly small."

* * *

Miranda was frowning while they talked in the cargo bay "You sure you want to risk it, Jacob? The Krogan's created and educated by a psychopath, one worse than…"

Jack had just strolled into the mess and was heading to get some food "Me?"

"Uh…"

"Don't worry cheerleader, I actually agree on this one. I enjoy killing to a degree, but Okeer? Pointless…" Miranda was left gaping after Subject Zero left with her food.

The genetically engineered woman shook her head to clear it before turning back to her ex-boyfriend "Anyways, normal Krogan are dangerous, one taught by a madman? You sure you want to let that sort of thing loose?"

Jacob shrugged "Even if I didn't, Miranda, it's the Commander's decision, and we can't afford to pass up on a good recruit, and we ARE taking Jedore and dumping her on the Citadel, it's a wonder you haven't complained about her yet…"

Miranda rolled her sea-green eyes "Thanks for bringing that bit up, Jacob, I was about to ask why we're helping a merc commander… oh, and let's not forget letting her live in the first place, we should push her out an airlock"

"That's enough guys, I'm heading down to wake the Krogan, keep Jedore in the med bay and treat her for her injuries… we're getting two new recruits today if we're lucky. Jedore's got a good rep as a soldier in the Blue Suns, according to Garrus, and she managed to keep Kasumi from battering her into submission in the first two seconds of their fistfight. Considering Kasumi's speed and armour, she could be a valuable team member."

Miranda shrugged "If you say so, Shepard. Good luck with the Krogan, want backup?" She frowned worriedly.

Shepard waved the concern off, "Nah, I can deal with him. Thanks anyways, Miranda." He left before the two could say anything more.

Jacob spun to face Miranda "Did you hear him say 'two recruits'?"

The woman shrugged "I wouldn't be too surprised, after all, Kasumi Goto is so fast that you'd have a hard time holding up for as long as Jedore did."

* * *

"Anything you got for me on this guy, EDI?" Shepard looked up at the towering Krogan

"Subject is exceptional specimen of Krogan species, roughly 2.5 meters tall when fully erect, fully formed primary, secondary and where applicable tertiary organs, no physical defects of any kind other than Genophage markers. Mental defects… I can't say anything yet."

The fluids drained from the tank before it opened and the Krogan inside fell to his knees before he fell to his hands and knees, breathing harshly and opening his eyes for the first time, coughing and blinking several times before his eyes focused. Seeing Shepard, he roared, charged and grabbed the black and red armoured Marine and smashed him against the wall and pinned him off the ground. Shepard didn't so much as blink, looking thoroughly bored with the whole business while the Krogan snarled into his face "Human, male, before you die, I need a name."

Shepard narrowed his eyes dangerously, letting the air of mere irritation roll off him in waves as he'd been taught in Marine training and reinforced in N7 training "I'm Commander Shepard and I don't take threats lightly, I suggest you relax."

The tank-grown Krogan, later, would come to understand and reflect that this was the sort of time when a facepalm was in order "Not your name, mine. I am trained; I know things, but the tank… Okeer couldn't implant connection. His words are hollow." Words flashed through his mind's eye. "Warlord, legacy, grunt… grunt. 'Grunt' was among the last. It has no meaning. It'll do." Holding his arm against the human's throat, 'Grunt' tilted his head as he regarded his captive. "I am Grunt. If you are worth of your command, prove your strength and try to destroy me."

Shepard raised one eyebrow, still outwardly seeming thoroughly bored with the whole business while in reality his right arm's armour servos had already allowed him to move far enough to have his LSMG aimed at the belly armour of "Grunt" while he spoke "You wouldn't prefer 'Okeer' or 'Legacy'?"

Grunt shrugged "It's short" In later years Grunt would reflect that a grunt was indeed short (for more reasons than one), hence he had made his first double entendre, pun or whatever it was called almost the moment he was "born", but currently, said… thingamabob… went completely over his head. "Matches the training in my blood. The other words are big things I don't feel. Maybe they'll match your mouth better. I feel nothing for Okeer's clan or his enemies, I will do what I am bred to do, fight and determine the strongest, but his imprint has failed." Grunt leaned a bit closer, blinking his beady blue eyes—an eye colour Shepard couldn't remember seeing on any other Krogan—and grinned "Without a reason that's mine, one fight is as good as any other… might as well start with you."

"I have a good ship and a strong crew, a strong clan, you'd make it stronger."

The Krogan grunted "If you're weak and choose weak enemies… I'll have to kill you."

"Our enemies are worthy, no doubt about that."

"Hmm…" Grunt snorted "That's… acceptable. I'll fight for you."

Shepard finally cracked a grin, orange facial circuits pulsing menacingly "I'm glad you saw reason."

"Hmm?" Grunt glanced down, then let Shepard down and drew back, chuckling "Ha! Offer one hand but arm the other… Wise, Shepard." He nodded approvingly "If I find a clan… if I find what I… what I want, I'll be honoured to eventually pit them against you."

Shepard simply nodded approvingly "So, Grunt, I'd like to ask, how much you know about the Coalition of Species, namely, our weapons and armour?"

The Krogan, looking about the secondary cargo bay, shrugged "The Tank didn't have much data on you Humans or the Seraphim, or even the UN of Drell, so I don't really know much beyond that the killing power of your infantry weapons is far superior to typical infantry weapons found in Citadel Space, and that many of your vehicles are a combination of absurdly huge even compared to Krogan vehicles and terrifyingly powerful."

"Well, they got that part right. You want to come take a look at our land vehicle that the Normandy deploys for ground missions? We can get you some better weapons and armour in that time."

Grunt shrugged "Could be interesting, and better gear is always good."

* * *

Several owlish blinks and an awkward silence later, Grunt spoke, still craning his whole upper body backwards to look at the entirety of the vehicle in the main cargo bay "Wow."

"Yeah, takes my breath away too, now come on, time to get you some new gear…"

"That would be nice." _If it's anything like that thing… it would be nice indeed._

* * *

"Hello, Jedore, good to see you're awake."

The blonde woke slowly, prying her eyes open with much effort before they snapped the rest of the way open at the white and green interior of the Med Bay, with grey and blue equipment. It had been found that while exteriors were better in Cybran and Seraphim colours, interior colours of ships were generally ore aesthetically pleasing in Aeon or UEF schemes. "Hmm? Where… I've been captured, haven't I?" Jedore slumped as she realized her current predicament, being restrained to the medical bed she was currently on.

"Yes, I'm Commander Shepard" At Jedore's wide-eyed look, Shepard added nonchalantly "you may know of me."

Jedore gaped up at the man "You're the Veteran of Mindoir, Sole Survivor of Akuze, Hero of Elysium, and Saviour of the Citadel Shepard?"

The man nodded "Yep, John Shepard at your service, how's the jaw?"

Jedore flexed her jaw a couple times and winced "Still stings a little, but nothing I can't handle. How did a dead Spectre come back to life?"

"You fought well back there, Jedore. Anyone else would have been knocked out by Kasumi's superior speed within seconds, you lasted nearly two minutes. I want to recruit you for my crew on this mission. As for how I came back to life, the Cybran Nation rebuilt and resurrected me." He pointed at his now far more extensive (than before, though it was just typical fare for Cybrans) facial circuitry.

The blonde opened her mouth slightly, then paused before replying "Ah… that's… rather unbelievable, but since you're here standing in front of me I guess I'll believe it. What's the mission?"

"Collectors have been going around kidnapping human colonies out in the Terminus Systems. They must be stopped, and I'm gathering a team to do the job."

The blonde beauty frowned "Sound like science fiction, but if you're telling the truth, I'm in, it's my duty as a human to stop the bastards… wait, I heard Okeer got some Collector tech for his specimens, must have been what made them so unstable and useless… did he have any data on the Collectors?"

John shook his head, sitting in the chair nest to the bed "I wouldn't say that sort of thing around Grunt, by the way. He's our new resident Krogan, Okeer's Legacy, and one of his creations, he doesn't like insults, as you may have guessed from him being, well, Krogan."

Jedore shifted uncomfortably and would have scratched her head in embarrassment if she could "Uh, for the record, I'm sorry about activating that toxic gas injector; it's kinda hard to focus on where you're rolling when you're pinned under and trying to outfight someone whose punches have enough strength to dent armour…"

Shepard chuckled and hit the buttons to deactivate the restraints, freeing Jedore from the medical bed before helping her up "I understand, Jedore, welcome to the crew of the CSC Normandy II. Come on, I'll give you a tour of the ship."

A voice came from nowhere "For the record, Jedore, you're pretty good, managed to keep me from KO-ing you pretty much immediately, and you managed to pin us down for a while too, impressive considering there was one of you and a lot of us."

"Who's there?" Jedore frowned, and then instinctively lashed out, catching Kasumi's waving hand in mid-air before the Master Thief uncloaked. She didn't have her helmet, but her hood obscured her face anyways.

The thief smiled from under her hood. "Good instincts too, figured out where I would most likely be and went for it. You'll make a good team member."

* * *

Shepard leaned casually against Jack's doorway "Hey, Jack, so, how was the outing? Had fun?"

"Why the fuck are you asking? It took me a bit to see past your nice guy façade, Shepard, but under it all, you're still Cybran, just like all the rest of 'em."

Shepard frowned; Jack was more hostile than last time, probably because his circuitry was more visible this time, since he wasn't wearing any head gear and wasn't trying to hide it. Still, having a team member onboard who absolutely hated everything to do with your operation, including yourself, wasn't a great idea, so he had to know. "Why do you hate the Cybran Nation so much?"

Jack summoned a bit of bluish energy in her hand and twirled it a bit in the air "What would you think about people who kidnapped you, tortured you and drugged you all in the name of creating the most powerful human biotic ever?"

"Miranda says, and this is true, the Cybran Nation has rogue nodes, ones that don't answer to Doctor Brackman or the will of the people of the Nation."

Jack's eyes blazed in fury at that, and she rounded on Shepard, "That's a bit fucking convenient, eh? Miranda's a Cybran bitch to the bone who swallows every fucking bit of crap Doctor Brackman feeds her. Jacob's less of a dickhead, but that's not my problem, you, Shepard, are yourself a Cybran, tell me, do you get off on abducting children and abusing them?"

Shepard sighed and ran a hand through his short hair "I would say no but you wouldn't believe me anyways. What are you looking for in those files?"

"I'm not looking for answers or reasons, Shepard; I'm looking for names, dates and places, anything that can tell me about me, so that when I find out, I'll remember me."

"Let me guess, you're trying to hunt down the people who did this to you?"

"Wow, you must be a fucking genius to figure that out. Everyone who ever hurt me pays, their friends pay, their families pay, anyone who ever spoke a fucking word to them pays."

Shepard blinked, circuits pulsing as he considered her words "Too many have already died in the Wars, Jack, if you try to do that, I'll have to stop you."

"I signed up fro your mission, Commander, after that, what I do is my own fucking business."

"You think about revenge a lot, don't you, Jack?"

She wasn't the subtle sort "Yeah, I go to sleep with the thought, I wake up with it, every time I kill someone, I pretend it's the ones that did this to me. Judge me if you want, Shepard, I couldn't care less."

There was a long silence "You don't have to live down here, you know… there's always going to be a place for you on the Crew Deck if you want, though the accommodations are more or less the same…"

Jack shook her head "This place is fine, dark, quiet and hard to find, that spells safety to me." She suddenly grinned viciously "You know, this ship is a powerhouse, could probably take on a Council Dreadnought if you played it right, you could go pirate, live like a king… I could help."

Shepard's brown eyes followed Jack as she paced "As what? First mate?"

She shook her head "I'd lead the boarding parties and handle executions."

Shepard stood up straight again "Well, let me know if you find anything in those files."

She waved him off "Oh don't worry your little head over that, you'll know if I find anything."

"What do you think of our newest recruits?"

She raised an eyebrow "The Krogan and that merc?"

Shepard nodded "Grunt and Jedore, yeah."

He was ignored "The Krogan seems alright, did you know that if you stick a knife in at the right angle you can tear that head plate completely off?

Shepard shook his head "Sorry, not stupid enough to get hand-to-hand with a Krogan with just a knife."

"Heh, you're alright, Shepard, at least, you aren't an idiot, and from my little spar last night with Kasumi, Jedore's alright too, that thief's faster than I am without biotics… surprising a merc with only Citadel-grade armour could have held up to her for more than about ten seconds. Still, I'll reserve judgement for now, since it must take one dumb bitch to try to stand in your way."

"Uh, Jack, you're standing in my way to the door right now, and I _was_ planning on leaving."

Jack stared at Shepard for a moment before bursting out laughing "Nice one, Shepard, you got me good there, now fuck off." She stepped aside and waved an arm toward the door, which opened. Shepard nodded to her respectfully as he left.

* * *

A/N: YOU SHOULD GUESS WHAT THE NORMANDY'S LAND VEHICLE IS! (I accept anon reviews so no worries there)

IF YOU DON'T REVIEW, I WON'T UPDATE (I want at least 5 reviews for this chapter before I update with Horizon, which I already have written, and one-liners don't count unless you guess at the land vehicle).


	9. Event Horizon

Thank for the overwhelming response, reviewers!

Sorry, I should have checked m e-mail sooner, and been clearer on asking for reviews… I meant GUESS THE NORMANDY'S LAND VEHICLE (**if you haven't done so already**, anyways a **list of candidates is at the end of this chapter**). REQUESTS/SUGGESTIONS WELCOME! (Note: not all will be used, obviously, but all will be considered.)

I just did some thinking and realized a Nanodart's yield (400 kg TNT Equivalent) is in fact able to produce a mushroom cloud-style explosion if in the form of actual explosive (Whoever thought it up didn't realize the Cain would need either a plasma, proton, electron or antimatter-based warhead to produce one with a 25 gram round). Also, Collectors aren't up to Reaper tech levels, so don't panic about the Coalition being better than the Collectors, it means just about nothing. Also I do watch videos now, a least, some of the ones I think are important and unchanged (obviously, for example, the Ashley & Kaidan meeting is going to be vastly different).

Jedore's about to get her first taste of (temporarily) unarmed close-range combat, with Harbinger. Sorry enemies able to match up to a Coalition Marine Ball are very uncommon, by the way, but some will be included with time. Also, I wholeheartedly agree with more Raider Industries gear being introduced.

Yeah, that was an A/N, now, on to Horizon!

* * *

Chapter 9: Event Horizon

_CSC Normandy, December 31, 3870_

"Doctor Brackman wants a chat, sir, it's urgent." EDI intoned.

"Patch it through."

The orange holographic face appeared on his HUD "Hello my child, time is short, Horizon, a human colony in the Terminus Systems, has just gone silent. If it isn't already under attack, it soon will be. Our hands are tied, but yours are not. Got o Horizon and find out what the hell's been happening, I presume your eight team members are all ready to go and acclimated to new equipment where applicable?"

"Yes Doctor, have the coordinates been sent to EDI yet?"

"Yes my child. I have something to tell you, Ashley and Kaidan, your former crewmembers, are both on Horizon at the moment."

Shepard frowned "Huh, last I heard they were still officially active duty Coalition soldiers. Why are they out in the Terminus if our fleets can't be there?"

Brackman sighed "Officially, it's our outreach program to improve relations into the colonies and bring them back into the Coalition before it's too late to save them, unofficially, we're installing Transcender-class SAM batteries and other defences in the colonies to improve their chances of survival until we can arrive if the Collectors attack."

"Won't the Council get nervous if we send enough ACUs to do the job quickly?"

"That's why we're sending T3 Combat Engineers, my child, and part of the problem. They're a lot slower about things than typical ACU warfare setup would be. Good luck, my child, and kill those damned Collectors for us!"

John bowed his head in respect "Understood, sir, Shepard out."

* * *

_Horizon, December 31, 3870_

"Lilith, we've got a problem." Ashley Williams called as she and Kaidan ran up to the woman in charge of the colony's maintenance.

"Still can't get the entire defensive power grid to work at the same time?"

"Yeah, there are too many units to wire together at once effectively without a CU or Node of some sort." Ashley left it to Kaidan, the less experienced of their pair in ACU warfare minutiae, to state the obvious, which he did without fail "The entire network's useless unless we can pull it off, we only shipped the number you specified, not the amount we would have, so we can't get full coverage without the whole thing working."

"Sorry, Commander, getting our comm. systems back online takes priority."

Ash snorted "Yeah, okay, surprised people haven't tried blaming that one on us too."

"The reason most of us are out here is because we don't trust the Coalition's ways, it's nothing personal." They looked up toward the sky as a rumbling was heard, like thunder but different.

"What is that?" Ashley zoomed in her helmet, Kaidan watching the PIP box on his HUD before she zoomed out again, seeing the huge, lumpy shape emerge from the clouds. It seemed to be some sort of Cruiser, but was closer to the size of a Council classification dreadnought or Coalition BC in length. "Lilith" her voice had gone to the commanding voice that had given her mother, Ariel Williams the respect she deserved as the youngest Grand Crusader in Aeon history. "Get everyone to the safe house… I'll make the PA" She dialled her transmitter to do so and broadcast the message throughout the colony before noticing the large swarm of… things, coming down from the ship. "We'll cover you, RUN, NOW!"

Kaidan had already opened fire with his dual SMGs when she raised her Temporal Fizz Launcher to her shoulder and began spraying into the oncoming swarm "You reminded of Scrin Buzzers, Ashley?" He asked as the kill count on his HUD went insane, their armour-piercing munitions, phased plasma blobs and laser bolts cutting straight into and through the swarm.

Ashley kept up the fire as the colonists ran for their lives "Let's hope they work the same way, shoot them enough and they all fall down…" Suddenly, her personal shield informed her it had fried one, and she picked it up, finding a half-crisped bug "Damn ugly critters too, trying to sting us…"

"They're ignoring us!" Kaidan called as he cut down more, though his kill count was less than one percent of Ashley's right now (it pays to use a portable flak gun against a swarm of bugs) "The remaining ones are headed for the colonists!"

"Damn it, we can't shoot the bugs if they're too close to the unarmoured colonists, which means…" Ashley grabbed something from her quantum storage space "Swat them down!" She yelled as she wielded the over-sized fly-swatter with one hand and her Fizz Launcher with the other, still cutting the bugs down in the thousands with every Fizz and dozens with every swat (the ones that got between her and the colonists).

Kaidan growled in frustration as he too grabbed a giant fly-swatter, they bought those on Horizon, since the low-gravity dense-atmosphere planet allowed for insect life to grow to alarming proportions on a regular basis, it had seemed a prudent purchase then and was REALLY proving its worth now "This might take a while… damn it, that ship's landing! Doesn't seem to be anything we can do for the frozen colonists according to my scanners, too much medi-gel required to neutralize all the toxins, these things' venom will have to wear off with time. Their skeletal muscles will be paralyzed until then, still alive, but unable to fight back…"

Ashley nailed a dozen of the bugs in a single swat before looking up at the frozen colonists "Let's go see what the flying fuck they're up to, off to the ship, Kaidan. We can't save everyone at once, but we can at least find out what these things are doing." She growled as she adjusted her grip on both her weapons, still firing as she went.

* * *

"We are the Harbinger of their perfection… prepare these humans for Ascension." A glowing Drone spoke as it directed more drones and hordes of husks in collecting the frozen colonists. There were two, a male and a female, putting up surprising resistance at the other end of the colony, cutting down seeker swarms with impunity, but troops would be sent to encircle and deal with them…

* * *

_CSC Normandy, December 31, 3870_

Mordin checked the readouts on his Light Plasma Cannon before disassembling it and putting it back in his armour's Quantum Storage Space "Will be interesting to test out stealth capabilities of Coalition Marine Armours against Collector Seeker Swarms, passive and active. Have calibrated passive systems to increase efficiency somewhat against swarms, but we may eventually have to go to the standard active stealth…"

"Thanks for the information, Mordin" Shepard nodded at the Salarian and turned to the Krogan "ready for your first taste of real combat, Grunt?"

Grunt grinned "Most certainly."

"Good, remember troops, we've gotta stop the damned Collectors, you know what to do, we'll use ball tactics and crush anything that gets in our path, unless the Collectors turn out to be too tough or become organized enough to be difficult, in which case we'll use standard assault tactics, understood?" The squad members grunted, yelled, mumbled and in various other ways made assorted affirmatives as the Restorer touched down and they disembarked. "Joker, EDI, make sure the Restorer is tasked to taking out more distant Collector squads, we'll take down the closer ones."

The nine-person crew moved forward into the colony, while the Restorer flew past over the colony and began raining down Quad Light Laser fire on unseen targets, staying out of range of the point defence guns of the Collector Cruiser parked in the distance. It was nice to know that no one quite had the laser technology the Coalition had, the Citadel Races' GARDIAN systems were dedicated to anti-missile and anti-fighter mostly, and took forever to cycle and vent heat, the Collectors seemed to have only slightly better stuff. The Coalition's Heavy Microwave Lasers were effective at ranges up to a tenth of a light-second, though this required a lot of power to be put in. At shorter ranges, such as the ones used by Monkeylords on the battlefield, which was at most five klicks in Bombardment Mode, which was usually effective only at broadcasting the location of your units, it consumed no extra energy other than the unit's own power core's output.

"For the record, my fine-tuning of passive stealth systems may not work as they have not bee adequately tested yet, will be interesting…"

Jedore and Miranda glared at Mordin, the blonde speaking first "You tell us this now?"

"It doesn't matter, guys, at most we'll just have to use active stealth, which is normally on anyways… Mordin, why is our active stealth off?"

The Salarian's yellow helmet optics blinked "To test passive stealth tuning, of course."

Shepard snorted "Right, guys, at the first sign passive stealth isn't cutting it, switch to active, y'all got me? Good." He noted hostiles in the next area according to the info provided by the Spook Spy Plane circling far overhead. "Get ready for a fight, guys, remember, cohesive ball, use light weapons and watch where you shoot, we don't want to hit any colonists" Any of their weapons, even a Gauss pistol, had at least enough punch to put a fist sized hole in a human's chest in one shot "Grunt, you'll like the tactic."

"Excellent…" The big Krogan grunted as he joined the "ball" which was a roughly round formation of the nine ground crew members, Shepard at the center, they moved forward as a unit around the corner, over-shields overlapping each others' bodies.

"Fire at will!" Shepard shouted, and the crew opened up with their assorted "small-arms", selectively targeting the Collectors and blasting them off their feet.

Grunt was obviously enjoying himself immensely before… "Hey, big guy!" Jack called from the other side of the circular formation "how 'bout we do a little contest? How many Collector legs can you blow off before the mission's over?"

"What do you mean by that?" Grunt yelled back, it was interesting to be challenged by this much shorter, lighter and more fragile Human female.

"I mean like this!" She hit a Collector's crotch twice in quick succession with her Phasic Shotgun, which resulted in the creature's natural armour boiling away and the internal fluids expanding quickly enough to basically explode, throwing the legs to the ground while the top half of the corpse flew into the air, landing with a thud some distance away.

Grunt tried to do the same, and failed epically as the resonance waves from his first shot shattered the armour of a Collector, causing the plates on its body to crumble and fall off. The second shot more or less reduced the Collector Drone to something that resembled jelly with a few bones sticking out, since the resonance seeking setting was to resonate with tissues instead of bones "Uh, hello? This here's a SONIC PULSE SHOTGUN? I can't do that!"

"Fuck… well this is boring." Jack cursed in response.

Shepard took note of the incoming hostiles marked as flyers and began yelling a warning "Enemy air inbound, ETA, right the hell now!" Having been briefed on what Ball tactics entailed, the three crew members at the back, Mordin, Garrus and Jedore turned their weapons skyward, Jedore grabbing her Temporal Fizz Launcher off her back and opening up on the incoming Collector Drones.

"Since when the fuck could these damned things fly?" Jack's comment more or less summed up all their opinions.

Shepard growled while cutting down another Collector Drone with "Well if these bastards can fly, we can to, up and over boys! Rotate, ROTATE!" The Ball took off, spinning to present fresh over-shields to the incoming fire from the Drones. The original front line's over-shields had been worn don to nothing and were relying on Shepard's expanded shield, Jack's shield had kept Jacob safe, Grunt's kept Miranda safe while Kasumi stayed out of accurate targeting by benefit of camo. "Activate active camo, we're taking too much fire… these things aren't crappy, but they aren't good enough for the Coalition Infantry Ball." The nine people all engaged their active camo, though this put some strain on their power generation, it was small compared to the drain of the Quantum Propulsion Packs. Shepard announced his mass navigation plan before starting it "Move left, MOVE LEFT!" He selected his entire group on the tactical map and right-clicked on their left side, causing the QP Packs to move them over there, this was one of the best things about the holo-console's abilities, though of course the soldiers could still take control of their own gear, it was usually a more practical battle plan to navigate as a unit.

The Collector fire got less and less accurate as they strafed around the Collectors, since the targets were nearly invisible against the blue sky. The number of Collector Particle Beams firing at them also shrank as the Collectors went down one by one. "Damn, that was harder than I thought it would be…" Shepard whistled as the group came back to the ground, he kicked a Collector corpse before noticing something on a picnic table "Hey, a data pad… wonder if it has credits."

Kasumi's voice came over the comm., the Master Thief standing behind John "Already done, Shepard, that's 6000 to your account right there."

Shepard spun to look at the wire frame image of the Master Thief painted in green (friendly) on his HUD "When'd you get over there?"

Kasumi shrugged "While you were kicking that Collector, I saw the thing and whisked the money off it."

Mordin chimed in "Amazing, faster than even an STG member could possibly pull off… wondering if your suit contains teleportation device…"

Kasumi shook her head and uncloaked, leaving active camo on, still being a wire frame on Shepard's HUD but actually presenting a slight ripple in the air to direct visual "No, it doesn't, if only it did… I'm just fast, that's all."

Shepard sighed "Let's go, guys, I'm not detecting any more goodies around." They moved down the street to a square of some sort with several short buildings around it. "Maintain active camo, guys." It didn't drain on energy reserves, merely affected the rate at which they recharged, so why the hell not use it? They rounded the corner into the square where colonists were being moved inside their pods "They're harvesting the colonists, KILL THEM! KILL THE HUSKS FIRST!"

As expected, having taken the bastards completely by surprise, Shepard and co were soon walking through puddles of Collector blood and pieces. They smashed the corpses, those still intact, into mush in anger and the knowledge that their ammunition was infinite so long as their armour functioned.

Thankfully, since the buildings were on lockdown, it wasn't the traditional nightmarishly long skirmish of urban warfare, but they did manage to grab a data pad off a balcony with 4200 credits. They moved past the square and around a corner, noticing a dead husk on the ground and starting to pick up the distant sound of gunfire and resistance "Hey, this husk is different from the ones the Geth used to deploy…"

Mordin nodded, examining the cybernetic zombie "Indeed, from archives and scan results, it appears these husks are tougher, faster and stronger than the ones you encountered on your previous 'save-the-galaxy' quest." He stood up and shrugged "Well, still easy enough to kill."

Jacob nodded, looking around for threats "Agreed."

* * *

The next square had been more annoying; with more Collector Drones and Collector Particle Beams firing at the Marine Ball they'd re-formed. However, it was still not a daunting task, made even less so than the 7800 credits they grabbed off various computers while searching the area for more Collectors just in case "Feels just like old times, doesn't it, Shepard?" Garrus had commented "Except in old times it didn't feel like we were robbing the ones we're trying to help."

"You know what Coalition doctrine is for this, right, Garrus?"

Garrus decided to relieve the boredom of waiting for scans and analyses of the area and its various goodies "Enlighten me again?"

Shepard turned from where he was scanning an apparently dropped Collector Particle Beam, the mainstay of Collector Drones, apparently. "Coalition doctrine is to grab whatever you need for your mission, if necessary, civilians can be reimbursed for losses later, after all, if you don't win, the civilians are gonna lose a lot more than possessions. A number of battles have been turned by Commanders reclaiming Civilian structures early on or even later if it's skyscrapers we're talking about for mass to build units with, same doctrine extends to Coalition Infantry."

The Turian grinned, having successfully talked until the scan was done "Thanks for reminding me why I like working with you one hell of a lot more than I liked C-Sec."

"Glad to help, come on guys, let's move… scans on that weapons back there indicate it's a continuous beam radiation weapon, like a Rhino's Particle Cannons but continuous and with far, FAR less stopping power. It would probably take about twenty seconds for one to cut through the plating on even Kasumi's armour due to the refractive/reflective dispersion layer and energy dispersers and radiators built into the armour. Sure, it is better against fields and shields than you might think but…" John noted the wave of red washing into his "Radar" range "Enemy air units inbound, reading as more Drones, Garrus, Mordin, deploy weapons."

The squad prepared for battle as the two with set-up heavy weapons put them up. True, they were both mostly designed for area-holding against hostile infantry, since the Tomcat Autogun had linear splash damage and the Light Plasma Cannon area splash, but they could be repurposed in a pinch to deal with aerial targets, namely by using Flak mode on both weapons. In this way, the Light Plasma Cannon could function as a weapon firing seeking plasma pulses (significantly weaker and slower firing than the standard rounds) and the Tomcat Autogun as a fragmentation grenade launcher.

While they were merrily firing away at the incoming Collectors that were still busy trying to fly over to them, Jedore made her first random comment "You know, with the speed those guys are flying at, we could fly circles around them, and why the hell aren't they shooting back?"

"Possible their metabolism or energy sources do not support flight and weapons at once." Mordin shrugged as he put out more SMG fire, still alarmingly accurate even at over half a kilometre of range. "Not all technologies at Coalition levels, am wondering why these are SMG classification though, they appear to be more akin to Assault Rifles."

Shepard responded with "Jacob, answer Mordin please." He was a bit preoccupied with dual-wielding his Temporal Fizz Launcher and Gauss LMG.

The man responded while firing away with his own GLMG "They're called SMGs because of their smaller stopping power per round, Mordin, though they're still pretty good, our pistols actually fare better against armour, so, being the weakest weapons we have per shot but compensating for firing rate, they're called SMGs, though most refer to the Phasic one as a carbine of sorts."

"Thank you, Marine Taylor, I will remember that."

Jacob simply nodded "Remember, Mordin…"

"No revealing Coalition secrets, understandable, will comply, no desire to see Citadel Council dissolve, competition for influence in the galaxy is incentive for self-regulation and good for the soul…" Mordin trailed off as if the term "soul" hurt him to think about.

"They're here, about time too." Shepard commented as several dozen Collector Drones, along with a few dozen of the ones with better Particle Beams, Collector Assassins, and Collector Guardians, dropped onto the field of battle, having lost over half their number en route.

The squad's outgoing fire slacked slightly as the members went for more practical ground warfare weapons or settings. Then a Tomcat Autogun's high-velocity slug ripped straight through a Collector Guardian's barriers, armour, body and straight through into the Collector Assassin some distance beyond the Guardian, also killing it in one hit before blowing a clean hole through a building beyond the Collectors and going out the other side. It continued its flight as a mass of metal semi-molten on the surface and being streamlines and rapidly solidified by the air it passed through, though the air friction kept the slug at hundreds of degrees Celsius. After all, it isn't every day someone fires a two-kilogram, six-kilometre-per-second slug on Horizon. The only thing that prevented the slugs in question from becoming artificial satellites (due to the planet's gravity only being 70% Earth Gravity, Escape Velocity is lower) were a) the denser atmosphere and b) the Collector Cruiser getting in the way.

Mordin didn't have the same sort of problem (i.e. creating hazards for orbital navigation), though the first Collector Guardian to get in his sights found its head or what passed as one flying up, up, up and away as its arms slammed into and partly through the half-disintegrated armour and partly cooked flesh of the two drones on either side of it, with the Drone behind it sent sprawling by the force of the blast and bits of plating off the Guardian's back literally exploding into its front.

"Garrus, dial down the speed and up the mass! Use medium-low gravity setting!"

Garrus did as he was told "Why, Shepard?"

"We don't need orbital navigation hazards! Horizon's gravity is too low!"

"The slugs go that fast?"

John nodded as he fired more Temporal Fizzes and GLMG rounds into the enemy "Yep." There was an awkward silence, only the sounds of weapons fire and the whirring of Jack and Grunt's Gauss Chainguns (set to a larger, Armour-Piercing High Explosive, round but slower speed) before…

"ASSUMING DIRECT CONTROL" A voice of some sort boomed as one of the Collectors began glowing from within, seemingly becoming possessed and the health bar designation on the Marine Armours' HUDs refilling, then indicating the essence of new and improved armour, then a biotic barrier, around the target. "I am Harbinger, greetings, one known as Shepard…" It sounded like it was trying to intimidate them, while also respecting Shepard for managing to help kill a Reaper.

Shepard blinked, and then put away his guns, yanking the "huge-ass missile launcher" known as an Infantry _Nano_dart Launcher off its slot in his armour's back and extending it, prepping for combat "Okay, that sounded too much like Sovereign for my liking…" He went to one knee and hefted the large, tubular device, and achieved targeting lock even as the thing swatted Kasumi, Miranda and Jacob, who had, after two 180 degree rotations of the Ball formation, returned to the front line, aside with one biotic attack "Bit too powerful too."

Inside the Infantry Nanodart Launcher, the power receptacles received a large amount of energy input form the armour, and used it to augment its own output enough to harvest entropy from the Quantum Realm. The weapon used the instant of crossing over into our reality, when the laws of physics from neither end applied, to convert the entropy into order i.e. mass. From that mass and the remaining, unused energy the Launcher nanolathed a small missile loaded with a packed electron warhead held together by quantum energy and phase inversion systems. The apparently puny missile left the launcher with a whoosh of air being displaced a moment later as the Quantum Propulsion device all Coalition missiles were equipped with kicked in and drew on the missile's energy storage matrix (and small power cores) to throw itself after the target at an alarming rate of acceleration. All this happened in the one second after lock-on was achieved, and before Harbinger's next biotic strike could fling Jack, Shepard and Grunt off their feet.

Harbinger's barriers, which were quite powerful by any reasonable description, intercepted the missile close to the Reaper-possessed Collector's frame, detonating the warhead prematurely. The only problem with the whole thing was that the Nanodart's yield was NOT REASONABLE for an infantry weapon of that size, anything else that even came close in land warfare in Citadel Space were generally large land vehicles with huge mass accelerator cannons. The amount of energy stored in the electron packing arrangement, destabilized by the Phase Inversion system shutting off, were directed into the barrier by the shell around the electron nugget, supersaturated with negative charge to direct the electrons, which punched into the barrier and its surrounding air molecules.

The explosion of now-ionized oxygen and nitrogen radicals, plus the electric discharge of the shell, and most importantly the kinetic force of the electrons and the immovability of the shell that directed them (thanks to the propulsion systems still pushing and the inertial compensators keeping the missile in place) slammed against Harbinger's barrier less than a millisecond after the detonation. The barriers held for a moment before buckling and allowing the remaining energy to smash into and fling Harbinger's possessed Drone back like a rag doll. Shepard similarly went flying and landed heavily, his over-shield suddenly drained from the Mass Effect fields tearing away at it from Harbinger's attack. The Coalition Marine got up in time to see Mordin disintegrate the Reaper-possessed Collector with a Light Plasma Cannon hit while Garrus and Jedore took down the last few Collectors with Tomcat and Temporal Fizz Launcher.

Shepard looked around at the team "Good job, guys, for a Reaper-related thing, that was astonishingly easy, easier than a YMIR… probably because there will be more of them later, if my guess is right…" (A/N: For the record, YMIRs are in fact a lot tougher than Harbinger Drones, if only because there are so many Harbinger Drones.)

The group marched south after grabbing another 3000 credits from a computer "Kasumi, bypass the gate, everyone, ready light weapons, this could be risky if we use heavy guns." The structure didn't have structural fields, so heavy weapons could bring the roof down on them, and while that wouldn't hurt much, it would still be a bit of a nuisance. The gunfire in the background was still somewhat audible, though it seemed to be getting further from them. When Shepard zoomed out on his holo-console, he discovered it was Ash and Kaidan fighting Collectors, and they were getting further from the gunfire. Sadly, the only thing he could really send right now was the Restorer to help them with crowd control.

"Contact, ahead, reads as human bio-sign" Miranda paused and levelled her SMGs, toggling her transmission options "Come out with your hands in the air!"

Two hands preceded an obviously scared man, trembling in fear, out from behind a shelf, Shepard frowned "Civilian, guys make sure you have good vantage points, this seems a good place for an ambush by the Collectors, be ready." Then he tilted his head, toggling the transmission options while lowering his GLMG.

"You're… you're human? What are you doing out here? You'll lead them right here!"

"You had to hear them trying to get in. Seems like it's hard to hide form the Collectors."

"Those things are Collectors? You mean… they're real?" _Uh, yeah, and the Coalition has been trying to tell you idiots that for… how long?_ Shepard thought "I thought they were just made up, you know, propaganda, to keep us in the Coalition… especially the UEF… No! They got Lilith, I saw her go down. Sten too, they got damn near everybody!"

Shepard did a mental eye-roll. _And this is why we warned you before you left Coalition Space…_ still holding his LBR across his chest, he asked "What's your name, what do you do here?"

"Name's Delan, I'm a mechanic. I came down to check on the main grid after we lost our comm. signals, then I heard screaming. I looked outside and there were… swarms of bugs, kinda like Buzzers from Command & Conquer 3… Everyone they touched just froze in place, I sealed the doors." The man took a shuddering breath, trying to stop his shaking hands "Damn it, it's the Coalition's fault, stationed those two, Alenko and Williams, here and built those defences, it made us a target."

Shepard decided to test this guy's authenticity before making a decision, as in whether or not it was a good idea to call Joker and the Normandy II down on the Collector Cruiser. "Tell me more about these Coalition reps."

"Alenko and Williams? Heard they were some sort of heroes… didn't mean nothing to me though, would've rather they stayed back in Council Space."

Shepard growled in irritation "Any idea what they were doing on Horizon?"

Delan shrugged "Supposed to supervise the installation of the new Transcenders the Coalition shipped us. I got the feeling they were here for something else, spying on us, maybe."

"Tell us more about the defence grid." That would actually be useful intel.

"High-powered Transcender SAMs, Zapper TMDs, and some Point Defence guns, supposed to keep any ships from landing near us. WE had to put together a massive underground generator to power the coordination grid, never quite realized how big ACU warfare really was until you stood on top of one of those SAM installations' covers and thought it was a part of a square's floor… Only thing was we still didn't have enough juice to get the Ravagers running together with the SAMs… network just couldn't handle it, kept on going offline… So the Coalition gave us a bunch of big honking guns that couldn't shoot in tandem fro fear of burning out our Citadel Tech level power grid… stupid assholes."

Shepard was getting annoyed "Why are you blaming the Coalition for all this?"

The man tugged at his shirt shoulder "We're just a small colony. Nobody bothered us before we started putting up those damned things and drew attention to ourselves."

"I left Coalition Space to get away from the Cybrans, Aeon and Seraphim, nothing good ever came out of mixing with them for me."

Shepard's trigger finger was twitching rhythmically at the man's blatant racism "The Collectors are targeting remote human colonies; the Coalition is trying to do what it can without making the Citadel Races get too nervous."

"I don't need their help, too many strings or in some cases circuits attached." The man snorted at his own joke, and Shepard glanced at Kasumi to make sure she didn't do anything impulsive. "Those reps said they were just here to get the towers online, but mark my words, there was more to it, trying to spread the Way, maybe? OR maybe it was their Aeon idea of a vacation for two…" Now Shepard was glancing at the Aeon members of his crew.

Shepard decided to state the obvious before Jack's ticking optic became something more violent and typical to her nature "If you have defences, we can use them against the Collector ship!"

"You'd need to get a better power grid system first, and sync up the weapons, they never worked right."

Garrus stepped forward slightly "One of us should be able to figure it out, we just need the location."

Delan shrugged again "Head for the transmitter at the other side of the colony. Pretty hard to miss, the targeting controls are at the base."

"For the record, it'll be better if you stay out of the way."

"Yeah, that's what I was thinking too. I'll let you out, but I'm locking the door behind you, I'm not taking any chances. Good luck… I think you're going to need it."

Shepard brushed the man off "I'll be seeing you around, mister."

* * *

"Anyone reminded of the stereotype zombie?" Shepard said as he blasted a Scion's corpse a couple more times out of spite "Including the bringing them for manual labour part?"

"Yeah, except these zombies have Shockwave, almost as powerful as I have." Jack snarled, kicking a Scion's head hard enough that it ripped off and flew away "That'll teach you to mess with me!" She completely ignored the obvious fact that you can't teach something dead.

They thoroughly looted the area for the conveniently placed goodies before bypassing the doors into the starport, gunning down more Collectors as they got in the way, using assault weapons to bore through the Collector Guardians' deployable shields quickly in lieu of heavy weapons. John shouted to his comm. "EDI, bring the network online, use the Normandy's SCU's Control capabilities to do it!"

The enemy didn't stand a chance in the confined spaces of hallways and rooms, well, Harbinger did, but the first two Drones he tried possessing were stuck by multiple Sonance Grenades before they could finish the morph and blown to vapour as a result. The third possessed Drone however managed to do some damage, also thanks to the confined spaces of the Starport buildings.

Jedore was the one unlucky enough to run into it right after she took out two Scions and three Collector Guardians, her shields were down when she rounded a corner, looking for a place to recharge peacefully, and came face-to-face with the monstrosity that got in the first strike, swatting her left arm's Phasic Shotgun out of the way before she could react and slapping her with some sort of flame attack that sent her stumbling back a couple steps, and following up with two successive biotic strikes, depleting her structural fields and scorching her armour plating with the energy. The thing then opened up with its particle beam after grabbing her right arm, focusing on the _relatively_ thin arm plates.

Jedore bellowed outrage before viciously backhanding the drone with her shotgun, trying to knock it away from her body so she could blast it properly. The Drone kept on cutting, its barriers flaring, into her arm plate, starting to cut a groove in the top, moving down toward her skin. Jedore could feel her skin begin to part before the particle beam, her flesh burning away as she kept up the pressure, blasting the damned thing in the face with her shotgun while it was slowly but surely amputating her arm with a death-grip and particle beam.

The critter's head blew clear off as she felt the beam slice through the bone, but the damned thing didn't let up… no wonder it was "possessed"… no need for a Central Nervous System any more. Jedore wedged her shotgun into the thing's neck and fired down while it was still hacking into her arm, and fired, then fired again, blowing the thing's body apart, its remaining mass slumping to the ground with a dull thud, still clutching a battered white and green armoured arm up to midway between the elbow and shoulder.

The ex-mercenary stared in shock, her armour sealing up the stump already with medi-gel and emergency structural fields, before she roared in fury and pain. Pushing both feet into the dead Collector's body or what was left of it, she grabbed her knife with her left hand and began messily hacking the Collector's fingers off. Then she wrenched the white and green armour segments out of its grasp, cradling it to her chest and looking down at what had a moment ago been a part of her numbly.

Jacob came running up from where he'd been tied up with more Collectors, having sent Jedore to find somewhere to recharge her shields and fields in safety for the moment "You alright, Jedore?" He stopped short when he saw her cradling her amputated limb and blinked, then shook his head, checking his HUD for nearby hostiles before kneeling down next to her "It's not a complicated procedure… your suit says the wound is clean enough."

Jedore grunted at the sting of more medi-gel being applied to the stump "So that's why 'Field Repair Viable' is on my HUD… what does it mean?"

"It means, brace yourself, this is gonna sting…"

Jedore grabbed a nearby railing "Go ahead Jacob… AAAAHHHHH!" She screamed as Jacob brought the end of the amputated arm to the stump and aligned it enough for the armour repair systems to kick in. The armour put up a supporting frame across the gap before the two severed ends of the arm were brought together again with a large amount of medi-gel to hold it together. The limb went numb as local anaesthetics were injected into it to make sure it wasn't used while the growth stimulants, nanites, nutrient fluids, etc. which constituted Coalition-issue medi-gel went to work putting the arm together again, the armour keeping most of it in bio-stasis to prevent necrosis. Only the severed end of the arm, the part with enough oxygen, had free reign to grow together with the stump.

While that was busy happening, the armour was plating together again over the site as it took from Jedore's omni-gel dispenser reserve and Jacob fed his own omni-gel to her for the repair. Jedore's breathing lost the shuddering quality it had a moment ago as small bio-electric sensors attached to the skin near her shoulder "Oh wow… if I'd known Coalition Marines get this sort of armour I would have gone back after I grew old enough to leave my parents…" The ex-mercenary said in wonder as she flexed the arm, using the arm's servos and synthetic fibres to move the limb which was still in bio-stasis under the armour for the most part, but healing quickly, knitting back together. She flexed her fingers before grabbing the LBR off the ground, noting that the mechanical movements were still much slower and less reflexive than her arm normally would be, even though they were directed by sensors reading the nerve impulses under her skin.

"And you know the best thing?" Jacob said conversationally as he walked to a window and shot another Collector Drone outside to dust.

"What's the best thing?"

Jacob's helmet lights were grinning extremely widely "It won't even leave scarring, ah, the wonders of Coalition medi-gel…"

Jedore gaped after they finished off the small cluster of Collectors and sounded off all clear, after the other squads in the area had done so. "You're joking right? You mean, if it's a clean cut I can lose my arm in a firefight and reattach it without leaving a scar?"

"Yes."

There was a silence as they walked back toward the clearing at the base of the main control tower "…Wow."

* * *

"System synching at 75%, hostiles in the area have been neutralized, Shepard…" EDI announced in her electronic voice. "Wait… I'm picking up a signature, some sort of large, slow flyer… reading high biotic Barriers and Armour, be ready for a fight, Shepard."

"A flyer… what sort of weapons?"

EDI's blue sphere avatar came up again "Not sure, most likely a beam weapon of some sort though seeing as all the Collectors have those… some more powerful than others, but all fairly effective against our shields and fields, not so much against armour. Be careful."

The Cybran Marine nodded "Understood, EDI, we'll deal with it, have the Restorer on standby for support if we need it, Shepard out. Jedore, how is your arm doing?"

"Still on neural-mechanical control and healing, but I can fight!" The ex-merc called back. "By the way, why can't I move it with my own muscles? It's already healed!"

"Well, Jedore, since this hasn't been declared an emergency, the suit will keep fixing the arm until there's no more scar tissue, helps with future bodily integrity and of course aesthetics. Of course, if you have to, it can put off repairing the scar tissue, but you don't want to walk around the ship with your arm prickling for no reason, besides, now that we're all together again, the Collectors aren't much of a threat, don't bother with it, just let it be."

Jack, on one of the flanks of the group again, snorted "Huh, should have known, well, it's still useable, so who cares…" Jedore rolled her eyes at the ex-convict, though out of said ex-convict's sight.

The flying Collector construct came into view as it cleared a nearby building, beginning to fire its sweeping particle beam at them, prompting Shepard to duck behind cover while Garrus and Mordin frantically packed up their heavy weapons and do the same as the beam swept toward them "Nanodarts and Fizzes, guys, those that don't have them use LBR Overcharge" in sniper mode the Overcharge could do a lot of damage, especially since it was specially tuned to disrupt shields as well as penetrate, but could only be fired very infrequently "or when its barrier is down Sonance Grenades!" Shepard bellowed as his over-shield began bleeding away under the particle beam of the "Praetorian", as his HUD, guided by EDI, designated it. John actually had to duck back behind cover when his Over-shield popped and before he could get off more than two shots from his Nanodart Launcher (i.e. take more than two seconds of fire). Shockingly, the Praetorian was still flying, its barrier holding up against the missiles and Temporal Fizzes impacting it, though the latter noticeably confused its perception of time and slowed it down in irregular bursts whenever a Fizz detonated close enough to seize its mass in the Chronotron dilation effect.

Finally, a Nanodart popped the Praetorian's shield and a volley of glowing Sonance Grenades flew out toward the advancing creature while the squad kept back-pedalling away from it toward other pieces of cover. The glowing blue-white balls stuck themselves all over the mass of fused husks and went off in a spectacular string of explosions, resulting in the Praetorian hitting the ground and letting out a long wail that shook the ground. The air around it distorted and warped as it seemed to gather more energy, the armour bar not changing on the squad's HUDs, stuck at 60%, but the Barrier recharging. Further shots were repelled by the field of some sort. "Take up better positions at the far side of the square, don't let it corner us, move, before it gets back up!"

The routine was repeated, though this time there was a lot more damage poured into the creature before it went down, its armour at almost nothing. There were several close calls though, such as when it slashed into Garrus's cover with a knife-like claw and was stopped only by the Turian physically seizing its appendage and using the strength of his armour and self to literally throw the thing off-balance. The claw had initially stopped against his shoulder plate, but then the Turian noticed and threw the Praetorian, probably around ten times his current mass, off him before using his QP Pack to boost straight up, flying out of the Praetorian's way and to a distant piece of cover before it could pop more than his over-shield with his beam. Garrus slid behind the cover, firing backward with a LBR Overcharge bolt that caught the Praetorian's barrier and finally brought it down, prompting a large volley of Nanodarts and Sonance Grenades that engulfed the Praetorian in a series of huge explosions.

When the targeting reticules finally ceased reading a hostile at that location, Shepard and crew stopped shooting, letting the smoke clear to reveal a mass of ash and burnt carapace. "Damn, that thing's barriers and armour were TOUGH! Worse than a goddamned Light Assault Bot!" Shepard said, firing another Nanodart that blew a piece of the wreck off, just like it had gouged trenches in their armour with its particle beam, trenches that were slowly repairing themselves, though no one lost any parts that had to be reattached, thankfully. "EDI, how's the progress on the towers?"

"Defences active, firing… now." The dull roar of Ravager Plasma Chainguns, Transcender SAMs and even Erupter Point Defences sounded in the background as Shepard and crew poured more fire into the dead Praetorian out of spite. "There is no need to keep shooting, Shepard, the thing's dead."

"Meh, it's called kicking your enemy when he's down, EDI, it's for fun." Shepard said just before another sound sounded in the background, that of the Collector Cruiser's engines activating, after all the Collectors' shuttles had docked with it and it had had enough of the fire poured into it.

"No! Don't let them get away!" The Mechanic from earlier stopped short, his hands frozen in mid-wave as he faced down the barrels of over a dozen weapons at once. It was almost comically similar to what the man would likely do if put in front of a firing squad.

"Stand down, guys, he's harmless."

"What are you doing? They're getting away!" The man pointed at the Cruiser rising through the atmosphere, chased by plasma bolts and missiles.

Jack snapped a retort at the man "What the fuck you expect us to do huh? You were hiding under your bed while we killed everything in our way to get here you ungrateful bastard!"

"But half the colony's in there! They took Egan and Sam and Lilith! Do Something!"

"We did what we could, mister, otherwise, you'd all be on that damned ship, what did you expect us to do, shoot it down while it was carrying hostages?"

"Couldn't you have disabled the engines?"

Jedore, still annoyed, took over the lashing of the mechanic "Hello, what happens when you blow out the bottom floors of a building? Shall we find out?" She made an ominous pumping noise with her shotgun while pointing it at the man's legs. "If it wasn't for Shepard, you'd be on that tub too."

"Shepard? Wait, I know that name, sure, I remember you, some sort of big hero in Council Space, some hero you are." The man shook his head.

"Watch your mouth, Delan." A voice rumbled ominously. Shepard, Garrus and Jacob looked up at the voice.

Ashley Williams was walking toward them, holding her Temporal Fizz Launcher and… a giant fly-swatter? "Captain of the Normandy, Veteran of Mindoir, Hero of Elysium, first human Spectre, saviour of the Citadel, you're standing in the presence of a god, Delan."

Kaidan stepped form behind her, cradling a Gauss LMG he'd obviously borrowed off Ashley, and also wielding a giant fly-swatter "Back from the dead, so Brackman was right when he said it could be pulled off given enough patience and time…"

"All the good people we lost and you two get left behind, figures, screw this, I'm done with you Coalition types."

Shepard was gaping at his childhood friend and her boyfriend as if they were mirages "Ash… Kaidan, you're alright!"

Ashley punched his arm with her white armoured fist "Of course we are, silly, we have Marine Armour, the seekers couldn't even detect us properly, you'd be impressed at my kill count of the things." She projected a figure, and then abruptly set it to number representation instead of icons, since the entire area her armour's holo-projectors could cover had been one big blob of kill markers "Oops." While this was happening John and Kaidan had shared a one-armed man-hug.

John gaped at the number of kills she'd confirmed "Over a million seekers? Well, Mordin, seems we've figured out why there weren't any seekers we could test our stealth on, and confirmed passive stealth should work. Also, please remember that the next time we go Collector-killing we should get ourselves a bunch of those." Shepard pointed at the fly-swatters his former crewmembers were carrying "Where'd you buy those, by the way?"

Kaidan looked at his swatter before replying "We got them to ward off Horizon's bugs, they can get quite large sometimes, and a big swatter is better than a little one for dealing with a fly the size of your palm. Incidentally, it was also very good at dealing with seekers when they were near colonists."

Ash wrapped an arm around John's shoulders and squeezed him before letting go "It's good to see you back in action again, Skipper, building a new team? Nice to see you by the way, Garrus."

The Turian in UEF Heavy Armour looked startled from his helmet optics until he remembered the HUDs included name tags for people.

Shepard glanced around and nodded "Yeah, to stop the Collectors this time."

Ashley nodded and wiped her swatter on the ground a couple more times before asking "They connected to the Reapers in any way?"

"I do believe so; they appear to be harvesting human colonies for the Reapers."

Kaidan chimed in "Sounds ominous… wish we could join you, but we've got our own missions now…"

Shepard cracked a grin "Classic couple on missions, huh?"

Ashley shrugged "You could say that…"

* * *

Doctor Brackman's hologram clapped his hands together slowly, grinning "Excellent, my child, excellent, we have confirmed our Marine Armours are sufficient in hiding form the Seekers even on passive stealth, oh yes, which means even in huge numbers active stealth should do it. It is too bad we could not have disabled the Collector ship without harming the prisoners, but Coalition stealth fleets will be on the prowl in the Terminus guarding our colonies from this point onward," Brackman stopped grinning "we cannot let any more humans be kidnapped," The old Doctor frowned and shook his head, obviously angry about it "must not let any more humans be kidnapped, oh yes, now, my child, I have one more dossier for you for now, more will come soon… any questions?"

"No, Doctor, have a pleasant day."

"I do believe I will, after all, it is New Year's here on Procyon… oh, one moment, an urgent message, goodbye, Commander, and good luck, your mother says you should come home sometime and explain to her and Benezia why the first thing you did was not to seek out Liara and apologize for dying on her…"

"But Doc…" the transmission cut out and Shepard sighed, shoulders slumping as he contemplated his no doubt short life expectancy if Benezia's biotics were like her daughter's. With the terrifying Division Commander Hannah Shepard in on it too, his life expectancy was even shorter than if it was Benezia.

* * *

Possible vehicles for the Normandy are:

Any Tier 2 more powerful than a Rhino: Wagner (Cybran Amphibious Tank), Riptide (UEF Amphibious Tank), Blaze (Aeon Amphibious Tank), Ilshavoh (Seraphim Assault Bot)

Any T3 land assault Unit less than 2000 tons: Harbinger (Aeon), Loyalist (Cybran), Titan (UEF), Othuum (read "awesome", Seraphim)

TAKE A GUESS (**if you haven't already**) IN A REVIEW, SUGGESTIONS AND REQUESTS WELCOME! (This shall be a fun reveal later…)

Next Chapter already written, waiting on guesses at the Normandy's land vehicle (those who haven't already).


	10. The Trojan Horses

A/N: The "Nanodart Launcher" is called that because its missiles are, compared to conventional (SupCom Conventional) missiles, very, very small, hence, nano darts. Also, it's designed to tear enemy aircraft to nanite-sized parts, hence Nanite Missiles and Nanodarts are effectively the same thing… except that Nanodarts are a whole lot more nano.

* * *

Chapter 10: The Trojan Horses

_CSC Normandy, January 2, 3871_

Joker tapped an empty area of his desk in boredom as he looked through the data files on Ilium's docking facilities, taking a drink from his reusable water bottle before announcing over the comm. "Only one problem with your plan, Shepard."

"What is it, Joker?"

"There's no large enough groundside docking facilities near downtown Nos Astra for 400-meter Coalition Destroyer."

"Damn it, alright crew, into the Restorer, I'm only taking four of you this time so the rest can go enjoy some shore leave." There were grumbles and noises from the crowd in the background of the comm. link; apparently Shepard wasn't wearing his helmet…

The Restorer, once everyone had boarded, dissolved the boarding catwalk and pulled away from the other ship, which was around ten times its length, dropping down toward Ilium's surface, through the clouds, the structural fields easily whisking away the heat of re-entry. They swung over the sea that Nos Astra bordered and toward the city proper, getting docking directions from traffic control and moving to the appropriate LZ.

On their way down, Mordin was filling Shepard in about some facts about Ilium "Asari corporate world, highly dangerous, might look better but is no better than Omega, recommend not signing anything."

Shepard turned toward his crew as they filed into the huge airlock. "Jack, Grunt, Jedore, Garrus, with me, Miranda, make sure the crew doesn't get into too much trouble while we're here, especially you, Kasumi, no stealing anything." The Master Thief groaned in irritation as the airlock cycled open on the other side.

They stepped out onto the boarding bridge, all nine of them, weapons holstered. Upon seeing the two LOKIs flanking the Asari that was there to greet them, Jack and Grunt started going for their weapons, Shepard held a hand up to stop them. The Asari spoke as she and the two mechs stopped "Welcome to Nos Astra, Commander Shepard. We've been instructed to waive all docking and administration fees for your visit. My name is Careena, if you need information about the area, it would be my pleasure to assist you"

Shepard frowned at the irregular procedure "Who instructed you to waive the fees?"

"The order came from Liara T'Soni" Garrus and Jedore noted how Shepard's facial circuits flared much brighter from their usual dull orange at the revelation "who paid all fees on your behalf." The woman brought up her omni-tool, having noted Shepard's flare-up, and sent the LOKIs away, the two mechs turning and walking off "She also asked that I direct you to speak with her at your convenience. She's near the trading floor."

Shepard nodded, receiving the local area map from the Asari "Thank you."

She nodded back respectfully "Again, welcome to our city, Commander. Please enjoy your stay."

EDI sent over a transmission "Customs record indicate Samara is still in this port, Shepard, better find out where she is quickly, lest she leave before we can recruit her… Your former team mate Liara T'Soni may have more information. Her office overlooks the Trading Floor."

"Thanks, EDI, anything else?"

"That is all." EDI said as they emerged onto a balcony overlooking the cityscape, heading toward the trading floor along it.

Jedore looked over the city skyline with a sigh "You have to give the Asari credit, Ilium is a cultural marvel… Non-Coalition human colonies could learn a lot from their ingenuity… though I'd say any UEF core world looks a hell of a lot healthier and more organized than this, no air car fleets for example." She grumbled the last part as the four-person squad followed Shepard while the rest of the crew did whatever they did in their time off. Her arm was as good as new, and there wasn't even a scar when she looked, by the time they'd gotten back to the Normandy and finished debrief, the entire repair had been completed and the young blonde was scar-free. Needless to say, she'd been astounded into silence for quite some time.

After climbing a rather long flight of stairs and entering Liara's office area, they were met by a purple-skinned Asari at a reception desk "Hello, Commander Shepard, Liara will be pleased to see you."

_If she's at risk, I need to ensure she gets out okay, best to ask…_ "What's Liara's reputation here on Ilium?"

The receptionist stood up from her console "She is greatly respected, in a few short years, she has managed to amass a sizeable network of connections. She could have even more political power than she already wields if she weren't so focused on her personal goals, but I do believe she should tell you about that, not me."

Shepard nodded _Good, though I've learned respect doesn't mean much, at least the local authorities won't have too much of a problem with her without being paid a huge amount of money_ "I'll talk to you later."

Nyxeris bowed her head in respect before sitting back down at her station "Of course, Commander."

They went through the automatic door just in time to catch the end of a conversation Liara was having with a hologram of a human man, a non-Coalition colonist judging by the poor quality of the hologram, since Shepard recognized Liara's holoprojector as a high-quality one. "Have you faced an Asari commando unit before? Few humans have." She paused for effect, picking up a data pad from her desk with her left arm, Shepard noting she still had her left gauntlet on from her old Aeon Medium Armour. He observed that her skin looked more ashen than before, an unhealthy greyish blue rather than the sky blue she had before, her head crest seemed to have lengthened slightly, the four on the outsides having extended further back, and her hips seemed to have filled out some more. Anything else, he couldn't tell considering her back was to him. Her voice, once so friendly and innocent-sounding, now carried a dangerous gloss to it, something borne of experience and knowledge.

She continued in a lighter tone, still dangerously slick and very much unlike the Liara he'd known "I'll make it simple, either you pay me… or I flay you alive," it sounded like she could have been playing with soft fluffy kittens in that voice, even as she threatened to strip the man's flesh from his bones, making Shepard shiver subconsciously, but then her voice gained a dangerous undertone "with my mind…" She cut the transmission. _What's happened to you in these two years, Liara?_ Shepard thought, shaking his head slowly, frowning in concern.

Liara T'Soni sensed something in that moment, a whisper, a thought directed toward her from a familiar mind, and her subconscious pinpointed the source before she even registered the presence of a signal. _A familiar mind indeed…_ she thought, "Shepard! Nyxeris, hold my calls." Her receptionist bowed respectfully in the background, but Liara hardly noticed, focusing on the man before her and noting the changes in him, the additional facial circuitry and change in squad, as judged from the people waiting outside the doorway.

But she ignored that, taking his armoured hand in his and feeling the familiar smooth yet grainy texture of Cybran Heavy Armour as eh pulled closer to him, leaning in for a kiss, pausing for a moment before their lips touched as she sensed… _biotics? How did they give you biotics? Granted, it's pretty limited from what I can sense, only one or two abilities at best, but… how?_ She leaned in regardless, it was still the familiar mind of the only one she'd ever truly shared herself with, someone she could feel safe with… _No, I can't dwell on that, I have a mission, and no doubt, he has his, after all, why else would they bring him back?_ She caught his right arm just as it was about to snake its way up her arm and pull her closer, drawing her lips away from his and shaking her head before turning her eyes away from his, pushing him away gently.

_Uh oh… that's not a good sign, Johnny._ A snarky part of Shepard's mind remarked before he silenced it, looking down at the ground for a moment before he started following Liara with his eyes, noticing all the other changes the two years had brought. She had definitely not been sleeping too well, he still knew her, at least, her body, well enough to figure that out. He could tell from the slightly ashen cheeks and slight depressions under her eyes, in addition to the slightly sunken (compared to before) eyes, dilated pupils from stimulant use, and her much lighter lip colour, since it didn't seem like she was wearing lipstick or gloss. Those were things no one else would notice, but he did. He parked himself in front of her desk as she walked behind it, putting it between them.

"My sources said you were alive, but I never believed… it's very good to see you."

Shepard frowned and crossed his arms "You have sources now?"

"A few, sources, contacts," She turned and looked out over the trading floor, suppressing the urge to just melt into his strong, welcoming arms again and just sob out her feelings and stress "even a little hired muscle. I've been working as an information broker. It's paid the bills since you…" She shrugged, pushing down the urge to sniffle, since she knew it would probably make her emotional walls dissolve like an ant would before a Monkeylord. "Well, for the past two years, and now you're back, gunning for the Collectors" She sat and he did too, their movements still in sync even after two years of one of them being dead, showed how deep the connection went… _Don't think about that, Liara, duty first right now, you owe it to the colonists the Collectors have been abducting at the very least to make sure he keeps focused_ "with the Cybran Nation and by extension, the Coalition backing you up."

"If you know that, they you know that I could use your help." _It would be like old times…_ Shepard thought before his recently repaired libido got its word in _but better, because you'd get laid, eh? URK!_ It made a choking noise as he stepped down on it harder than a Galactic Colossus doing jumping jacks _Liara deserves respect you asshole! At this rate it would be better if she didn't come with us, gives me time to beat you into submission._

Liara bit her lip, something uncharacteristic of her Information Broker face, _Forgive me, John,_ she thought before she said, shaking her head sadly "I can't, Shepard, I'm sorry, I have commitments here, things I need to take care of."

_Curse you, mind, you just had to think that didn't you? Now she's not coming… wait, she said things to "take care of", unto my, our experience, that means…_ "What sort of things do you need to take care of, are you in trouble?"

She shook her head and stood again, turning toward her view of the trading floor "No, no trouble, but it's been a long two years, I had things to do while you were gone, debts to repay." She looked toward the ground, blinking back tears that threatened to well up. "Listen, if you want to help, I need someone with hacking expertise, someone I can trust." She sat again, looking toward her holo-screen "If you could disable security at key points around Ilium, you could get me information I need," She paused and upon seeing Shepard's deepening frown added "that would help me a great deal."

Her formerly dead ex-lover shook his head "What's this all about, Liara, can't you just talk to me?"

"Don't you think I want to, Shepard?" She leaned forward slightly "It's not that I don't trust you. This is Ilium; anything I say is probably being recorded."

Shepard grunted and nodded "hacking terminals sounds pretty easy, why do you need me?"

Liara turned her chair again, looking toward the trading floor "I don't know anyone else I can trust, hacking the security node won't get you the data, it'll just create a minor glitch in the system. You'll have a short time to find a local server left vulnerable by the glitch and upload the data to my system. I'm leaving my own system vulnerable so that the data can be imported during that short time."

Shepard nodded "If it'll help you, I'll take care of it."

Liara smiled slightly "when you hack one, a server will open somewhere nearby for a short time. You can download data from there, if you hurry."

"Thank you, Shepard. This will help me pay a great debt."

John nodded again "There's an Asari named Samara here on Ilium, do you know where I can find her?"

Liara leaned back in her seat before responding "Samara, yes, she arrived recently and registered with Tracking Officer Dara. You can find Dara at the transportation hub."

Shepard frowned and leaned forward, resting his chin on his knuckled and elbows on his knee plates "Why would Samara have to register with a tracking officer? Is she a criminal?"

"No, in fact she's quite the opposite. Samara is a Justicar, one of an ancient sect of Asari warriors, Dara can tell you more."

John nodded, rocking his arms slightly "Well you've told me a lot already, that just off the top of your head?"

"I'm a very good information broker, Shepard. The world of intrigue is not so different from a dig site, except that the dead bodies still smell."

"Thanks for the help, that's all I needed to know."

Liara nodded in response "Of course, if there's anything else I can help you with, let me know"

"How's your own work doing?"

"Everyone needs information, Shepard. You want to know why I didn't drop everything to join you? I need that data. It should be about friendship," _That's cold, Liara, sure it won't backfire on us?_ A part of her mind asked, seeing Shepard wince at he choice of words "or trust, but that's not the way things work on Ilium."

"Let me know when you hack those terminals, give me that, and I can talk to you."

Shepard's circuits pulsed in irritation, Liara noticed and was about to speak again when he cut her off "I'll see you later, Liara." He turned and stalked out of the office.

"How'd it go, Shepard?" Garrus asked, receiving a glare from the Cybran Marine before he put his helmet back on, with its menacing red helmet optics.

"How did you think it went?" Shepard growled, causing the UEF Heavy Armour across from him to take a step back from his tone. "Come on, I have some terminals to hack."

* * *

"That was the easiest thing I have done in a long time… putting Trojan Horses in security systems, suitable that this is Ilium i.e. Troy… anyways, eating Gardner's food this morning was more difficult." Shepard took his helmet off again, it was better if he met Liara with his face instead of his helmet.

The Master Chef had apparently been listening in on the squad's comms thanks to EDI "Hey, I resent that!"

Shepard facepalmed as they walked back toward Liara's office "I meant can you make your waffles smaller next time? I had a hard time shoving as much of one as I could in my mouth!"

"Oh, well, thanks then, Gardner out."

After they got to Liara's office, Garrus and the rest of the squad, as usual, waited outside, though both he and Jedore purposefully ignored how Jack and Grunt were juggling Electron Grenades. Even though the safeties were on, Nyxeris was still hiding behind her desk, keeping her head down.

Liara looked up from her console as they entered "Shepard, it's good to see you again." She slid a credit chit across the table toward Shepard, who stared at it, blinking "Thank you for getting me that systems data. Here, it's not much, but hopefully it will help you on your mission. Do you remember the Shadow Broker? With the data you got me, I may be able to find information caches from his agents."

"I've got a lot on my plate, remind me who the Shadow Broker is?" Actually, the Coalition knew of the shady character, it was an unspoken agreement, no trying to get agents in the Coalition, and the Coalition Marines wouldn't come down on his network like a Yolona Oss on an SMD-free base. However, it would be nice to get more intel.

"He's the most powerful and dangerous information broker in the galaxy. No one knows who he is, given his resources, there's speculation that he may actually be a group operating under one name."

"Are you on the run from the Shadow Broker? I can help you." Unless the Broker could field more than two dreadnoughts, or a large swarm of cruisers, at once, the Normandy could always run to James' Hunter Clutch for help if need be.

"Actually, it would be more accurate to say that the Shadow Broker is on the run from me." Shepard suddenly noticed how Liara's irises were no longer the warm blue they had been in the past, instead, they seemed to be deadened, a cold gunmetal grey that was a far cry from the sea that he would have been happy to drown in. "We crossed paths not long after you died, since then, I've been working to take him down, with this data, I'm one step closer." Shepard was about to ask why she was saying it in the clear where any recorder could hear when he noticed the armour informing him there was jamming active in the area.

"You can't come with me because you're after this Shadow Broker?" She nodded "What if I help you find him?"

"I'm sorry, Shepard, the galaxy doesn't work that way, I need to find leads, trace information. I need to work." She waved her arms for emphasis before settling down and closing here eyes, rubbing her face with her hands before finishing "I can't do that on the Normandy, I wish I could."

"I've never seen you ready to execute someone in cold blood, what did the Shadow Broker do to you?"

Liara raised her face from her hands and folded her arms across her chest "I was on a job with a friend. The Shadow Broker's people caught us, my friend didn't escape." She shook her head sadly "I don't know if he's dead or being interrogated, but I need to find him. I owe him my life… and I need to make the Shadow Broker pay for what he did."

John felt a sudden pang of jealousy before silencing it. _Liara was never jealous of Ash being my best friend, she never doubted me, why the hell am I feeling jealous?_ "Let me know if there's anything I can do."

Liara smiled gratefully at the man that held a special place in her heart, feeling a flood of affection threaten to overwhelm her with the way he still acted, even though she had been so cold… _No time to get into that T'Soni, get your ass focused… oops, that came out wrong._ A part of her mind tried berating the rest, and epically failed. Thankfully for it, the rest of her mind was too busy laughing to exploit the weakness and gush everything to the only man she'd ever loved "Thanks, Shepard, I will. Now, is there anything else I can help you with?"

"How's your own work going?" Shepard shifted his hold on his helmet.

"The data you gave me was extremely helpful, it gave me a target." She was still typing away at the holographic keyboard, so Shepard leaned back and crossed one leg over the other knee "The Shadow Broker has several contacts here on Ilium, the most powerful is someone called the Observer. Taking down the Observer will put me closer to the Shadow Broker, I could use your help."

John's "I'm being used" alarm was ringing off the hook now, and he sat up again, leaning forward and circuits flaring in irritation. It hurt, it really hurt, being used by the woman he loved "Damn it Liara, I came to talk to you, not to do your dirty work."

"I'm so close, Shepard" _Hey, Liara, how many times have you said that sort of thing in regards to something else?_ Part of her mind, a more sinister part, taunted. _Oh shut up you… since when did you become part of my mind? Hello? You there?_ "I've been hunting for almost two years now" _Ah yes, and as you should know, we are the ultimate apex predator._ The odd part of her mind snickered before disappearing into the background of her consciousness. "I can't do this without you. I don't have the technical skill to reconstruct the data, and the Shadow Broker only refers to his agents by race and profession. Nyxeris has narrowed the Observer down to one of five operatives, a Turian, a Salarian, a Krogan, a Batarian and a Vorcha. I you can refine the list, I'll know where to strike."

Shepard nodded, interested "Do you have any specifics on these agents?"

"I'm afraid not, Nyxeris was lucky to get as much as she did…" Liara shrugged, though Shepard's instincts and training were screaming that Nyxeris might well be the Observer, he kept his mouth shut. It was a bit too obvious for someone like the Shadow Broker to try, wasn't it? Then again, maybe that was the point… Nah. "The data is our only hope of determining which one is the Observer, and if we wait too long, they'll all disappear."

"I'll reconstruct the data and tell you what I find."

"Thank you, Shepard, when you find something, call me on the squad channel we used in the old days, I can't risk handling this in person."

He still felt like he was being used, but for some reason he didn't mind it, it was Liara asking him for the favours after all, and he hoped that the old Liara, his Liara, was still there somewhere under the cold, hardened exterior she had adopted "Got it, I'll talk to you later, Liara."

She noticed a bit too late that he had left the credit chit where it was on her desk.

* * *

"The first terminal said '… trader tried to kill the Batarian. Claims it was because he hates slavers, but the men were more likely fighting over money. Watch for now…" Liara, so it's NOT the Batarian." Shepard paused "The second one said 'Smuggler and assassin have refused to work with Vorcha due to lack of trust. Odd to see scruples from the men at this point.' That eliminates the Vorcha. The next ones say 'The Turian's asking too many questions. Observer recommends terminating him and framing assassin or Salarian contact.' 'Turian contact working well with trader. Observer has rescinded kill order against him, given difficulty in securing contact with the trader through other methods.' So the Turian's out, might be the Krogan but the fifth terminal says 'Observer recommends a kill, she may have a grudge'. Is the Krogan female?"

Liara's voice came over the comm. as she used the comm. unit from her armour, the left gauntlet of which she still wore "No, all the contacts are male, or so Nyxeris tells me… Nyxeris! Can you come in here?" She cut the channel as Shepard broke into a run, heading for her office to help in the fight if he could.

* * *

By the time he got there, Liara was back behind her desk, calmly levitating a small ball of purple material over her left hand while smiling at Shepard. "Shepard! It's good to see you again. Nyxeris had some interesting data hidden away, thank you, Shepard; I wouldn't have caught her without you…" He nodded for her to go on "I'm one step closer to the Shadow Broker thanks to you, Shepard, here," She pushed the same chit, now loaded with more credits, toward Shepard "Nyxeris was very well-compensated, you need it more than I do."

John frowned down at the chit _I'm not a merc, Liara, and even if I was I would do any job you asked of me for free…_ before simply asking "Did you have any trouble with Nyxeris?"

"She was quite talented, I imagine had she been ordered to assassinate me, I'd never have seen her coming…" Liara moved the purple spheroid around a little, causing the lighter and darker parts to swirl slightly and mix in a fascinating pattern. "But her barriers needed practice, practice she won't be getting." Liara looked toward the spheroid for a moment at that.

"What's the next step in your hunt?"

"Now I gather information, peel away layers of lies, and shine light into the shadows. And when I find the Shadow Broker, I hit him with a biotic field so strong what's left of his body will fit into a coffee cup." The soccer ball sized purple spheroid shrank to the size of a tennis ball, exuding a large amount of clear water that snaked over into a sink Liara had in her office, before the purple spheroid dropped into a coffee cup Liara had sitting on her desk.

John felt the need to warn her as he looked at the purple stuff swirling slowly inside the coffee cup, it smelt oddly like ground meat. "Be careful out there, Liara, don't turn into the thing you're hunting."

"Says the dead Spectre… Don't worry Shepard, I'm not like my mom was back then, Everything I'm doing, I'm doing of my own free will, for better or for worse. Now, is there anything else I can help you with?"

He shook his head with a small smile "No, I'll talk to you later, Liara."

She nodded before going back to her console. "Goodbye, Shepard."

As he left, putting his helmet back on, he managed to catch "I really shouldn't have put what was left of her in this cup, it's gonna be a bitch, literally, to scrape out…" and John Shepard trembled in fear of what had happened to the once-innocent Liara T'Soni, what had made her able to do such a thing.

There was a series of clatters as the Electron Grenades Jack and Grunt were juggling fell to the ground one by one while the two soldiers gaped in abject shock. Jack had just finished explaining how her armour's recoil dampening could be turned up at the cost of some of her energy reserve recharge rate, hence why she could wield a Gauss Chaingun s a heavy weapon despite her light mass compared to Grunt when they caught that and, with multiple distractions, froze, letting the grenades fall to the ground.

Garrus turned his head and asked "Did you guys just hear that?"

Jedore turned slowly toward the pair of ex-jugglers "Jack, I think you've been supplanted as the top biotic madwoman in the galaxy."

The tattooed biotic shook her head slowly "To lose to someone like that… I'm really not ashamed… even I'm nicer than to turn someone into a smoothie…" She began picking the grenades up off the ground again, putting them back in the bandolier, which due to being set to non-combat state had not lathed any more.

Grunt turned toward his new buddy with a Krogan smile "Shaking in your jack-boots, aren't you, Jack?"

She blinked once, twice, three times before replying "Was that supposed to be a pun? Well it wasn't funny, are you _grunt_ing in fear?" From the noises Grunt had been subconsciously making for the past minutes, it sure did sound like it

Grunt let out a snort "You challenge me?"

"No, I'm just saying you should probably go take some lessons in humour."

Garrus's grey and blue helmet suddenly popped up between the yellow and red optics of his squad mates "How about going to Joker for said lessons?"

Jedore's white and green helmet nearly headbutted him when she shouted "NO!" In his face, while Jack and Grunt both glared him down with their red and yellow optics.

Shepard facepalmed in the background of the four-way head-to-head "I'm sorry, Garrus, but we need to get going if we're going to get Samara on our crew. Also, Grunt, don't listen to him, Joker's really NOT funny."

* * *

A/N: What did you think, now the "Put Shadow Broker in coffee cup" thing is actually possible!

If you haven't already, and from the number of reviews last chapter a lot of people haven't, guess the land vehicle, the list is at the end of last chapter.

The next chapter is already written, the more reviews, the more quickly I'll upload it. For those who like action, that means you should review, NOW. (**If you haven't already**, guess land vehicle, **if you have, don't re-guess it**, messes up the tally I'm keeping.)


	11. The Order… of the Justicar?

A/N: I think I took video-watching to the extreme here, tell me if it gets to be too much. The video series I watched for this was Zaeed and Mordin, so… Jedore's going to talk a lot. After all, I couldn't think of a better last name for the ex-Blue Suns merc on the squad.

* * *

Chapter 11: The Order… of the Justicar?

_Ilium, January 2, 3871_

Thanks to Coalition HUD waypoint and map capabilities, they didn't get hopelessly lost, when they walked up to Officer Dara, as the HUDs marked her by her transponder, she turned to regard the five-man crew "Can I help you with something?"

Shepard nodded "I'm looking for an Asari warrior named Samara."

"Wait, why? Do you have a problem or… Did she kill somebody already?" Dara stood up, paying full attention to Shepard now.

He shrugged "I just need to speak with her."

Dara nodded approvingly "Good, Samara's the first Justicar I've seen on Ilium, if I'm lucky, things will stay peaceful. She went to the commercial spaceport a few hours ago, if you want to get there, the pedestal on that balcony will summon a cab." She gestured toward the balcony in question "Just be polite when you meet her. Justicars embody our highest laws, and they usually stay in Asari space, she's not used to dealing with aliens."

This warranted investigation "Is Samara really that dangerous?"

"If you follow the laws you've got nothing to fear, and a Justicar would die without hesitation to protect the innocent. But their code orders them to stop lawbreakers, with lethal force, in most cases, and everyone skirts the law somehow on Ilium. If someone tried to bribe her, she'd be obliged to gun them down as a matter of honour. I'm hoping to avoid that."

Shepard let out a hum of agreement "Why are you worried about other species coming into contact with her?" He took off his helmet so it would be more obvious what he was talking about.

"If a Justicar kills an Asari, none of us question it, but if she killed a human… do you think the Coalition would understand her actions and respect her authority?" She shrugged as if to prove her point. In a way, she was right, the Order of the Illuminate had been supposedly for justice, and most of the agents people actually came into contact with believed in that and followed the code, but in the end, it had been revealed that it had that reputation so it could sustain itself and its reputation while the less able could function as a secret police to cull dissenters. This was sounding very, very familiar… In other words, the Coalition would have some MAJOR issues. "It's a big diplomatic incident just waiting to happen." _Hell yeah._ John thought.

"Tell me about the Justicars."

"They're a monastic order, they've given up their families and possessions to follow their code." Uh oh… sounds like the Order of the Illuminate to me… "Most of them are on some lifelong mission, but they'll always stop to deal with any injustice they encounter, which can be a problem. In some ways, they're a lot like the Spectres, undertaking personal missions."

"Spectres are authorized by the Council" _Or are a now-defunct Koprulu Sector infantry classification but that's beside the point_ "Who do Justicars represent?"

"What? That's like… I don't know an appropriate metaphor, they represent their code, our code." John felt a chill run through him. The Order of the Illuminate had represented "The Way, Our Way" right up until they turned on the rest of humanity and began helping the Seraphim Imperium, if it wasn't for the Separatists, the war would have been lost, all thanks to the Order's backstabbing. "It's closer to a religious group than a legal branch." _OH FUCK!_ "No law-abiding Asari would question a Justicar's orders."

It was close to what the history documentary on the Order of the Illuminate had said, oh so close: "No law-abiding Aeon citizen would question their orders… until the day the tables turned, and the truth was revealed." Those had been the words of the documentary, only the Order Templar came to the Loyalist side one by one once they realized how corrupt the Order was.

Dara continued without noticing Shepard's internal conflict "Nobody becomes a Justicar for personal gain, and they'd die before breaking their oaths." The documentary's words had been "Nobody becomes a member of the Order Templar for personal gain, and they'd die before breaking their oaths. However, it was in the vast numbers of support personnel that corruption first reared its ugly head, and spread through the ranks until the only ones still pure were the Templar of the Order, incidentally, these Templar all went to the Loyalist side when the Seraphim War broke out."

"Thanks for the directions, see you later."

* * *

"Too bad we couldn't have taken the Restorer." Jack said, teeth grit tightly as she was squeezed against the cab wall by Grunt's bulk and Garrus on the other side of Grunt.

Shepard was already having some difficulty fitting his armour into the single front seat, and it was only complicated by Jedore needing a place to sit, even after both put all their larger weapons into the laps of the three in the back. "Yeah well, we'd be the largest thing in the damned streets, probably get flagged down for being a traffic hazard, that sure doesn't sound like it would score any pointes with Samara… OOF! What are you doing Jedore?" The blonde was, after removing her back plates and holding them in front of her, removing his chest plate before squeezing her way into the cab by means of Shepard's lap.

"Trying to fit god damn it!" The ex-merc growled as she tried to make herself comfortable, squirming back into Shepard's body as she tried to get some leg room.

"You know, you should charge him money for that." Garrus said conversationally, before the barrel of a Phasic shotgun was shoved back through the space to the left side of the single front seat and clicked against his helmet plates.

"I have a shotgun…" Jedore warned, twisting her body so she could actually look back at the Turian while they lifted off, then she frowned and looked at Shepard, who was blushing badly under her glare. "Shepard, that thing had better be your Laser Pistol."

"Sorry" It was a natural response, since Jedore wasn't ugly by any human definition, and she did have a nice, curvy figure to go with it, so that got the normal response from Shepard, normal for a Cybran around twenty years of age (physically, roughly equivalent to a 25-year-old in 21st century terms). Actually, Shepard was quite happy to discover Miranda's repairs had worked out normally, happy, until…

Jack burst out into laughter as Grunt tried to shift his body to take up less room so he could laugh properly "I doubt that, Jedore, the cheerleader probably installed some upgrades there when she rebuilt him, why don't you guys test out his little shotgun right now?"

Grunt voiced his opinion "Do you have any idea what she is talking about, Shepard?" Both Garrus and Jack were swept away by gales of laughter. Jedore and Shepard, cramped into the front seat, groaned and facepalmed.

* * *

The crew piled out of the cab, literally, as Jack and Garrus fell out of either side onto the tarmac when the doors opened, thanks to Grunt's slightly overwhelming "presence", and Shepard and Jedore had to get out in the same direction, which resulted in Shepard catching himself from tripping over the edge of the cab floor by two hands on Jedore's butt. The instinctive boot to the head was narrowly blocked by a gauntlet.

"Damn it, Shepard, don't nail me like that."

Jack was still nearly choking in laughter inside her armour as she got up "Yeah, she'd prefer you nailing her in other ways…"

"Shut up, idiots, someone's coming!" Jedore hissed upon putting her helmet back on and seeing the HUD. Then she started putting her back plates on again, starting with her ass.

Sure enough, a Volus waddled by followed by two Turian guards, just before… "Where do you think you're going?" a purple-skinned Asari in a dockworker uniform demanded authoritatively.

"I'm taking my goods to Omega, Detective."

She shook her head "You're not going anywhere, merchant, not until I solve this murder."

"I had nothing to do with that! It was those mercenary thugs you can't seem to get rid of." The volus motioned about to make his point.

"The victim was your business partner, and I'm not ruling you out, I'll let you know when you can leave."

"What about the Justicar that just showed up? Everyone says she might go crazy and start killing! I need to leave." The volus was growing panicked by his voice.

"She'll only kill the unjust, so I'm sure you have nothing to worry about, Pitne For. Find me in the station if you need me." The purple Asari walked off, leaving the Volus there to shake his head sadly.

Shepard and co. walked over to the squat individual "What do you want? I already have mercs wanting to kill me like they did my partner! I don't need any more trouble. AS if that weren't enough, some Asari Justicar showed up this morning, all the natives are scared of her, I've got to get off this world!"

"Has Samara actually done anything yet?" a Ythotha won't do any damage if it's not targeting anything yet…

Pitne For looked around nervously "The Asari say that Justicars are lethal in a fight, and if they so much as smell corruption, they start shooting. The thing is… corruption isn't that hard to find around here."

Shepard nodded, sounded like the sort of person you'd want helping you, except for the fanaticism and the fact that the ship was filled with ex-convicts and ex-mercenaries… "Tell me how to find the Justicar."

"She's in the alley where my business partner was murdered." Pitne For pointed to a cordoned-off area some distance away "A detective sealed the area, so you'll have to talk with her if you want to go there."

Shepard put down a HUD nav-point at the alley's location using his armour's interface before turning back to the volus "Why do you think it was mercenaries?"

"Dakni Kur was cutting through a back alley last night when someone killed him with a shotgun, I saw the body this morning, they'd used a modded round, and that means Eclipse mercs."

"You must know something about this Eclipse…"

The volus shrugged "I occasionally do business with them, but only in well-lit places with my guards, and only after the credits clear. This is a scummy bunch, even by merc standards, they sell red sand, all sorts of illegal items, and they are all cold-blooded killers."

Shepard crossed his arms "Why would these mercs kill him, and why do you think they're coming after you too?"

Another shrug "I have no idea, we're innocent merchants! But they killed him, so they must be after me too, I have to work the angles and get out of here."

"You don't seem too broken up about your partner's death."

"Dakni Kur knew the risks when he took to spacing. Right now, my worry is me. It's unhealthy to be a volus in the Nos Astra spaceport right now, especially a volus named Pitne For."

"Huh, well, I'll see you around, have fun trying to leave." Shepard simply walked off, his squad following him into the police station, evident by the big "Police" sign above it, though Shepard wondered why Asari signs were always in English, not like, say, Turian ones, which made Coalition HUDs give translations as subtitles.

They walked to the desk of the detective they saw earlier, Anaya from her name tag "Nice guns, try not to use them in my district, what can I do for you?"

"I'm looking for an Asari warrior named Samara."

Anaya sighed "If you've got a score to settle with Samara, take it somewhere else, I've got more than enough trouble here already."

"I need to recruit Samara for my mission, then we'll be on our way."

"Justicars usually work alone… but are drawn to impossible causes." She looked at the human before her for another moment before deciding he was serious "If you're getting her out of my district, I'll get you to her ASAP, she's at the crime scene."

Shepard raised his eyebrows "You're letting her into a sealed crime scene?"

The purple Asari shrugged "I'm a cop, I'll work with a Justicar all I can. Besides, she's been looking at crime scenes longer than our two life spans combined. She knows how to handle herself"

He crossed his arms in front of his chest "You're awfully anxious to get Samara out of your district…"

"My bosses want me to detain her, they're worried she'll cause some sort of cross-species incident. But her Justicar Code won't let her be taken into custody, if I try it, she'll have to kill me. I have no interest in dying, so if you lure her away with some big noble cause before I have to carry out my orders." She spread her arms "I'm thrilled to help you."

"Your superiors are sending you to certain death for no good reason. You have the right to disobey."

Jedore leaned toward Jack "Then maybe we should talk about hazard pay the next time he walks us into 'certain death'." She used air quotes.

Jack looked at the ex-merc and rolled her eyes "That's on average twice per day or so, if you count certain cramping, I mean, the Restorer airlock's big, but nine people at once?"

Shepard looked back over his shoulder "Most of the time, I'm not being stupid about it, I can't say the same about Anaya's superiors."

The cop in question shook her head and sat back in her chair "I'm a cop, and I know my duty. I've been ordered to detain her and I will, unless I can get her to leave my district first."

"Samara would kill a cop? That doesn't sound very just…" and it sounded like the Order of the Illuminate's Templar Code, but Shepard didn't say that, it was one of those things Coalition citizens simply did not tell others.

Anaya shrugged "She'd die defending an honest cop, but she'd fight an army of dirty cops to the death. I admire her dedication, but her presence is still a problem, I need her gone before I have to carry out my orders."

"How do I get to the crime scene?" That was what John asked, since asking to get in would be a bit rude and brash.

"It's around the corner, go outside, take a left, look for the police line, I'll send word to let you in. Be careful, the local Eclipse mercs have been all over those back alleys lately."

Shepard nodded respectfully "I have to go then."

Anaya returned the nod "Good luck."

Jedore stretched "Let's find this Samara before the detective does…"

The Commander nodded "Let's move, guys." Shepard led the group as they rushed out of the police station, Grunt yelling "Finally! They wouldn't let me juggle grenades in there!" and attracting stares.

"Anaya told us to let you through, watch yourself, there's merc activity back here, we're waiting on backup." The two cops at the police cordon told him before letting him and the crew through.

The crew went to the end of the corridor and grabbed some credits off a data pad before overhearing Eclipse comms thanks to their Omni Sensors, which clearly detected the enemies up ahead. "Get the rest of Bravo Squad prepped, Alpha Squad went after that Justicar 20 minutes ago, and they've gone dark."

Shepard shoved an Electron Grenade around the corner, hearing surprised shouts before the explosion, and swung around the corner, opening fire on the still-standing Eclipse Vanguards and Sisterhood Initiates, as his HUD designated them. The five LOKIs here were down, however, so that was a relief.

The gunfight took a while, mainly because of the abundance of cover and the fact that the squad couldn't use heavy weapons, but once they toggled the Gauss weapons to Armour-Piercing, the cover became a non-issue and purple Asari blood splattered the walls under their relentless fire, since there were five people on Shepard's side, over-shields overlapped and soaked up the Gauss Rifle fire, though Shepard and Grunt lost their over-shields, being at the front.

Going through the door on the left side of the end of the hallway resulted in the squad collectively ducking instinctively as an Eclipse merc flew into and shattered her spine on the frame of the door. Shepard would have given her a dose of live-saving medi-gel if he hadn't just been shot at by mercs of the same organization, instead, he gave her a different kind of mercy, a Laser Pistol bolt through the head while looking up at the balcony above, activating his QP Pack to get a better vantage point

A Purple Asari wielding only a P-38 SMG, another Raider Industries product, which, like their Gauss Rifles, was very powerful by Citadel Space standards and acceptable by Coalition standards (Coalition "small-arms" are to deal with OTHER infantries, only "heavy weapons" had a chance of Coalition tech troops fighting battles against one another that are not absurdly drawn-out and ineffective) was backing away from a blue Asari in reddish skin-tight armour, who had her biotics active. "Those were my best troops." The Eclipse lieutenant said nervously, her voice shaking as she backed away.

"Tell me what I need to know, and I will be gone from here…" The blue Asari, Samara if the dossier picture was accurate, stated, sounding every bit the predator the dossier said she was. She walked around the balcony like a cat stalking a mouse, John noted, with the minor fact that cats don't generally wear ultra-fetishist uniforms that provided zilch in the way of real protection. "Where did you send her?"

The purple Asari also moved in the circle they were both in, keeping her distance from Samara "You think I'd betray her? She would hurt me in ways you can't imagine."

"The name of the ship…" Samara changed the direction of her prowl, and the other Asari did the same "Your life hangs on the answer, Lieutenant."

"You can kill me, but one of us will take you down, Justicar!" The Asari raised her SMG (derived from the "pistols" used by the Reaper Infantry of the Koprulu Sector), but before she could fire, Samara blasted her with her biotics, lifting her before throwing her past herself through the window, landing heavily on the ground below before herself jumping down, using her biotics to land gracefully before pinning a boot on the neck of the Eclipse Lieutenant. Shepard saw it all from his vantage point (and wondered why she wore high-heeled boots) before he jumped back to the ground, landing softly via QP Pack.

"What was the name of the ship she left on?" The Justicar's voice was low, dangerous.

"Go… to… hell…" The Lieutenant gasped out.

"Find peace in the embrace of the goddess…" Samara seemed to have run out of patience, twisting her boot sharply, a loud crack and the Asari below her going limp signifying the neck being broken.

Shepard scratched his head, having taken off the helmet to appear friendlier, he would normally have immediately gone for a medi-gel and truth serum combination to get the data this Samara wanted from the merc, though theoretically use of the latter would land you in a military court to justify your actions, but he really wasn't feeling happy about Eclipse right now. He was about to speak when the red-clad Asari turned to face him and he took note of the ornaments she wore on her forehead.

"My name is Samara, a servant of the Justicar Code, my quarrel is with these Eclipse Sisters, but I see five well-armed people before me." She had walked around the corpse toward them.

Jack said to Jedore on a private channel "Hallelujah now wasn't that obvious…"

The Justicar stopped before Shepard, recognizing him as the leader of the squad "Are we friend, or foe?"

Shepard gestured toward the still not completely dead woman "That merc was wounded and helpless, do you just kill anyone who won't help you?"

Samara shrugged, showing exactly how skin-tight the suit was, as her half-exposed breasts didn't even jiggle from it, as noted by Jack and Jedore, though their optics were locked in position and Shepard was not stupid enough to be rude like that "If my cause in important enough, yes, are you any different?"

"I've killed enemies, but always with good reason." Shepard stated plainly, looking into the seemingly hollow eyes of the Justicar, with light grey-blue irises being what made them seem lifeless in a way to him.

She was equally plain in her speech "I answer to a code that is clearly defined, if my actions are true to that code, I am just, if they are not, I am unjust. I don't pretend that it is a simple matter, or that it seems right to everyone, but I sleep well at night, and that is more than most can say. How may I be of service to you?"

"I'm going up against some pretty damned tall odds, and I need the best on my crew, that's you."

She looked into his eyes for another moment before answering "I sense the truth in what you say, and it humbles me. But I seek an incredibly dangerous fugitive." Shepard nodded for her to go on. "I cornered her here, but the Eclipse sisters smuggled her off-world. I must find the name of the ship she left on before the trail goes cold." She gestured down at the body.

"I knew I should have followed my instincts and saved that lieutenant…" Shepard muttered.

Samara turned back to him from where she stood over the corpse "What?"

"Coalition medi-gel could have kept her alive long enough for a truth serum to get the answers out of her, then we could give her more and heal her or shoot her, depending on our choice, but… she's brain dead now, nothing I can do."

"I wish you were willing to go with the human, Justicar, I've been ordered to take you into custody if you won't leave…"

"You risk a great deal by following your orders, Detective. Fortunately, I will not have to resist. My code obligates me to cooperate with you for one day, after that, I will have to return to my investigation."

"I won't be able to release you that soon." Anaya was noticeably nervous.

"You won't be able to stop me." Samara said simply.

Shepard cut in "Uh, the human is lost here, can one of you clarify?"

Anaya spoke first "I was trying to convince her to leave with you, but Justicars and their Code…"

"The detective has been ordered to detain me. I can't force her to disobey an order."

Jedore stepped up to the plate, looking between the two parties "And after a day, Samara breaks out and starts killing anyone in her way?" _That sure doesn't sound very just to me… or to most people._

"I'm afraid so…" Anaya shrugged glumly.

Shepard held his hands up in a pacifying gesture "There must be some way we can all get what we need."

Samara answered "I see a way, while I am in custody, you find the name of that ship. Do that and I will join you, then the Code will be satisfied."

John held up his hands to give the classic "now wait just one moment" message "A moment ago, you refused to give up your investigation, but now you'll swear to follow me?"

Samara bowed her head "If I stay, I will be compelled to kill many innocents to escape incarceration."

Anaya put in her bit "Like me."

Samara's eyes flickered to Anaya before she continued "I may be killed, and my quarry would be free to continue murdering. If I come with you and survive your mission, I can resume my investigation. To do that, I need the ship's name to track her to her next hiding place, it is a simple choice."

"Logical, 'slim'" Shepard used air quotes "odds, but possible, better than impossible… anyways, this Justicar Code seems quite strict."

"It may seem so to you, but this is my oath, the expedient path may be fast and simple, that does not make it the right path."

"Do you have any leads?"

"The volus merchant, Pitne For, is tied to this. Eclipse mercs are preparing to kill him." She looked into space past Shepard for a moment "Get the truth out of him, he may know a way into the Eclipse base."

Anaya ran a hand through her head crest and sighed "Well, I've got to get back to my station, and I guess I've got to take you with me."

Samara nodded curtly before looking past Anaya to Shepard "Thank you, Shepard." Then she walked off with Anaya.

* * *

Tapping Pitne For on the back of the enviro-suit got a jump out of the volus before he turned around "Hello again, Earth-clan, did you speak to the detective?"

Shepard had no patience for nonsense "Why are the mercs after you?"

"I know nothing about any mercenaries, Earth-clan. I am merely an innocent merchant trying to make his way in life."

Shepard rolled his eyes "The Eclipse are out for your blood, I need your help to break into their base, shouldn't we work together?"

"Yes… you're right, Earth-clan, I've got angry mercs after me and now this Asari Justicar, let's talk…" He turned his back to Shepard, looking around "I smuggled a chemical onto Ilium that boosts biotic powers in combat, it also is toxic." He turned back to the team, most of which was glaring at him "I may, um, have forgotten to mention that to the Eclipse, so they are perturbed and want to kill me."

John snorted "Hmm… sounds like you're a swindler and your actions finally caught up with you…"

The Volus shrugged "True, and true, but I haven't survived this long as a merchant without being able to tell when there's a deal in the making. You want something."

Shepard leaned down slightly and hissed "The Eclipse recently smuggled someone off-world, I need the name of the ship she left on."

The volus spread his hands before him helplessly, taking a step back in fear "I don't know about their people smuggling operations, they must keep records in their base. I do have a pass card they issued me to bring my goods in, well, I had to return that one, but I happened to make a copy." Shepard cracked his knuckles, making his meaning clear. "Take it…" he gave Shepard the pad "But be careful, each Eclipse sister commits a murder to get her uniform, they're all dangerous."

* * *

Shepard opened up on the LOKI mech with his Gauss LMG as he stepped out of the elevator, wearing down its shields as it stood and levelled its weapon from its packed-up, crouching position. It only got to get one plasma pulse off from its arm blaster before Jedore and Grunt's shotguns (Jedore had the interesting combo of LBR and Phasic Shotgun for her primary weapons) turned it to scrap metal.

They went past the door to their left, rolling behind cover before the Throws from the Eclipse Vanguards could hit them. Sure, their armour held against Warp, Stasis, etc. quite well, but they could still be moved slightly by a good Throw, at least enough to stumble slightly. Jedore got in the first kill, nailing a LOKI straight through the head with her LBR after reducing its shields from range with her Phasic Shotgun. The thing could work as a bombardment weapon if desired, but the rounds were a lot slower than other Phasic weapons, hence they jacked up the power and called it a shotgun.

Grunt was next, smashing in a LOKI's head before blasting the next LOKI back into a pile of canisters, spreading a reddish cloud into the room "It's that toxin!" Shepard yelled "Check seals!" Many Coalition Marines in normal combat left their suits to enviro-sensitive, letting in some scents at low concentrations to allow the user greater environmental awareness, but this was a time for full NBCP protection.

"Lost OS!" Jack yelled, ducking back into cover when her over-shield wore down from Gauss Rifle fire, apparently, the Eclipse used a lot more upgrading than Blood Pack did. That wasn't a good sign

Shepard looked over to his left from where he was hiding behind a support column, looking over the safety railing to the ground a long, long way down, he got an idea. "Keep them down, I'm going to flank 'em!"

"How…" Grunt was cut off by Shepard jumping off the edge of the balcony, manually flying his armour and firing at the same time, diverting some of the attention of the Eclipse troops enough for Jack to Charge them and throw down a Shockwave, blasting them off their feet. Those that didn't found themselves on the receiving end of Jack's supreme irritation had a strong tendency to find themselves intimately acquainted to LBR fire form Jedore and Garrus, or, in some cases, either a ram or a shotgun by way of Grunt. Shepard himself only got a couple kills before he flew back into the building and watched his squad rip into the mercs.

The last Asari, a Sisterhood Initiate, went down to Grunt's shotgun, her head exploded as the Phased Plasma entered her helmet before un-phasing and heating her face so quickly the whole helmet exploded. The corpse's chest plate exploded outward too, half-cooked purple flesh, blood and bone fragments flying everywhere as the remains fell to the ground, still steaming slightly from the gaping hole in the armour, making a wet thud in the silence that permeated the battlefield.

Jedore walked up, stepping in the puddle of blood that had drained out of the neck of an Eclipse Vanguard whose barriers, shields, armour and head she'd punched through with a volley of LBR fire. That had also been a spectacular and messy explosion of brains and blood, but still… "That was a messy one, Grunt."

The young Krogan shrugged "No messier than Liara T'Soni's kill of Nyxeris."

There was a moment of silence before Jedore replied "True, true…"

Jack cut in as they walked through the door, weapons held at ready "Are we going to have a contest on who can make the messiest kill? Ideally messier than the coffee cup thing Liara came up with?"

"I wouldn't call that messy, merely gruesome." Garrus said as they followed Shepard into the next hallway.

"That's kind of the point." Jack grumbled. "Let's have a contest of gruesome kills."

"Sounds fun to me…" Grunt said, adjusting his grip on his Sonic Pulse Shotgun slightly.

Shepard's armour's audio receptors picked up and amplified a signal, triangulating with the other armours to reveal someone behind the door tot heir right "Oh Goddess, Oh Goddess don't let them see me… If they do see me, don't let them kill me… What am I doing here?"

Jack chuckled "Hey, looks like we're about to get a chance to try the contest, who wants to deal with this one?"

"No, Jack, I want to question her first, you guys stand down, if it comes down to it, I can handle her myself. And remember, take combat seriously, people can get killed if they don't."

"Understood, Shepard." Garrus and Jedore agreed before Jack and Grunt could protest.

"Okay, Shepard, have it your way." Jack agreed. Grunt merely grunted agreement, _hmm, he does that a lot, I guess he chose an apt name for himself after all…_ Shepard thought before reaching for the door controls.

The door opened in front of the team, revealing a seemingly empty room that their HUDs showed not to be empty, outlining the neutral-hostile behind the large console that dominated the room "Get your ass out in the open or I'll put it there with a grenade!" Shepard bellowed, his red helmet optics flared in threat and LSMG levelled at the Eclipse soldier that slowly stood up.

The blue Asari had her arms up in the air and was clearly unarmed "Wait, stop, I didn't fire my weapon once! I pretended to because the other Eclipse sisters were watching, but I didn't really shoot!"

Jedore's LBR was parallel to Shepard's arm, levelled at the merc's chest, she was all too familiar with how treacherous mercenaries could be, having seen more Blue Suns turn on people, even other Suns, than she could count "That's an Eclipse uniform isn't it? Turn and face the wall."

The Asari grew more frantic "I'm not one of them, I'm new! I thought being Elnora the mercenary would be cool," She grabbed the P-38 SMG she had gotten from somewhere off her back and pointed it at Shepard, who rolled his optics in irritation at the stupidity of young people and leisurely pointed his own LSMG at her. Then she looked down, pointing the gun at the ground and shaking her head "but I didn't know what they were really like!"

Shepard didn't put his LSMG down this time "What is it about them that you didn't like?"

"I thought we'd be flying around the galaxy shooting up bad guys and stuff, right?" Jedore Massani rolled her eyes, Elnora sounded like herself a few decades back, joining the merc bands of the non-Coalition human colonies, left to fend for themselves with only basic tech out of spite at rejecting the Coalition's message of unity and tolerance "But no, all they do is sell red sand and illegal weapons tech. They even smuggled an Ardat-Yakshi off-world." She was talking really fast now…

"What does Ardat-Yakshi mean?"

"It's an ancient Asari word for something that… I thought was… just a superstition until now. It means 'demon of the night winds'… I didn't think they were real, but… the boss said this scary lady was one." The power of the biotics all the Asari could feel on her… up close when they were active, it was searing, blinding, like feeling the sun burning your face with your eyes squeezed shut. She had never felt a thing like that before. She hoped she never did again.

"What ship did they use for the smuggling?"

Elnora shrugged "I have no idea, it was a few days ago and like I said, I'm new, they didn't tell me anything."

Shepard nodded, feeling they'd gotten all the intel they could from the kid, he holstered his LSMG "Get out of here, Elnora, if you so much as jaywalk, I will find you. I'm Commander Shepard, remember that name."

She gaped for a moment "Commander… Shepard? Aren't you… Oh, uh, yes sir! Okay, I'm going, thank you!" Elnora ran off, if Commander Shepard could come back from the dead, she had no doubt that he would make good on his threat.

They raided the room for items for possible funding before moving up the stairs, encountering another pack of Eclipse Vanguards, Sisterhood Initiates and LOKI mechs. They immediately started shooting all the toxic canisters in the area, setting them off an releasing the toxic red clouds. The biotics that shot forth from the Vanguards were noticeably more powerful than before, as a Throw sent Garrus falling over into a pile of crates, dropping them down on him, burying him until he turned the QP Pack on and blasted out of the small mountain of crates.

The Eclipse troops, other than the LOKIs, were firing in Shepard's crew's general direction, since the red clouds of poison gas reduced visibility somewhat in the dim lighting, but Shepard's troops were still shooting as if it was all bright as day. They kept firing, blasting away at the Eclipse troops' barriers, shields, armour and bodies while only at most losing over-shields to return fire from Gauss Rifles and P-38s. "Uh oh, prioritize on the LOKIs guys; they've fitted the plasma blasters with Disruptor Ammo!" Shepard noticed this slightly late as his own personal shield dropped below half from a flurry of fire from the eight LOKIs, the only hostiles that could still shoot straight. The five-man squad began firing on the LOKI Mech threat designators furiously, cutting through their shields and plating, reducing the things to scrap before the Eclipse troops started falling one by one not to weapons fire but to the toxic gas that permeated the room. Apparently, they were not equipped for hostile environment warfare. After the last one died from a merciful laser bolt through the brain, splattering most of her head across the ground, Shepard and crew scrubbed the air of toxins by using their suits' filtering capabilities. After the air was cleared to safe levels again, they proceeded.

"Why'd we clean that mess up for 'em, Shepard?" Jack asked testily.

"If the cops come here, they don't deserve to be gassed, Jack." Shepard replied simply. Jack snorted in agreement while waiting for Shepard to hack a terminal for credits.

"Whatever you say, Shepard, still think leaving an obstacle for anyone trying to flank us is better."

"We have Omni Sensors, remember, Jack?" Garrus supplied helpfully.

They went up another set of stairs, meeting the usual assortment of enemies and taking cover from the upgraded and thus quite powerful Gauss Rifles and P-38 SMGs the hostiles were using, as well as the K-12 Punishers the Eclipse Heavies used, also equipped with either Disruptor or Incendiary Ammo. Apparently, Blood Pack and Blue Suns never properly read the manuals Raider Industries included in their weapon sales…

* * *

Six thousand credits, a large number of dead Asari, more stairs, MORE dead Asari and a close call for Grunt, followed by one for Garrus when Grunt wanted to kick him for pulling him behind cover, later, the pack of five Marines came to a console, picking up the audio file there "Well it's official, little baby Elnora is finally a full-fledged Eclipse merc!" The Asari's recording sounded light, joyful, the sign of someone who enjoyed it "I earned my uniform last night when I killed that ridiculous volus. Up close, exploding rounds. Blew the little bastard's suit wide open! Hah!" Shepard narrowed his eyes in anger "I can't wait to see some real action! Next time I go home, my friends are going to be so jealous!" Shepard facepalmed at that, and Jedore fell over laughing, it was just like herself when she first joined the Blue Suns…

"Elnora was the killer; we shouldn't have released her…" Garrus shook his head sadly.

Once she got her laughter under control while the squad moved onward, Jedore stated "Detective Anaya would want to know about this."

"What the fuck was with the laughing anyways, Massani?" Jack asked as they walked through a long and boring hallway, weapons held at their hips for convenience. "Keep it up and you'll get my psycho bitch reputation, and I don't share well!"

"No worries, Jack, she just sounded way too much like me back when I joined my first merc band…" Jedore trailed off as they entered another docking bay and were met by eight LOKIs. Both parties opened fire at roughly the same time.

To a lone, relatively untrained Coalition Civilian (everyone received basic training on how to aim, fire, and such, and basic survival and guerrilla warfare tactics), armed with only a Laser SMG and Gauss Pistol that came with the Civilian Armour, they would have been a threat. To five heavily-armed people in Coalition Marine Armour… not so much.

After the LOKIs were sparking, smouldering scrap, the squad moved onto and across the bridge, when they neared the middle, Shepard noted something on Omni approaching at high speed. "I'm picking up a gunship of some sort headed our way… shit! Banshee incoming! Heavy Weapons authorized! Raider Industries really needs to watch who it sells to." When they started selling Banshee Stealth Gunships, they'd needed to outfit it with fairly powerful shields, though weaker than a Turian Army Gunship's, the cross-spectrum dampening and active camouflage capabilities (what the Koprulu Sector called "Cloak") made up for it by making it harder to target. Also, the Shockwave Munitions made up for it, using splashing napalm, white phosphorus and Thermite mix ignited near the ground, it was a small-scale fuel-air bomb, and was very powerful, though ammunition was more limited than for the Mass Accelerator Chaingun mounted under the nose, basically a better version of a Goliath war-walker's auto cannons using mass effect tech to render ammo effectively infinite. "Take cover!" Shepard yelled just before throwing himself behind a low wall, the rocket flying past him and detonating relatively harmlessly some distance away against the deck of the bridge.

The cat-and-mouse game including dogs, i.e. FENRIS mechs, continued for some time until the bridge suddenly lurched "Damn it, it's too much for the bridge to take boys! Get off!" He led the charge to the other end, watching as his over-shield shattered from taking too much damage from the rocket that hit him in addition to the mass accelerator fire. His personal shield was being whittled down at a seemingly alarming rate as time seemed to slow down, shattering from one of a pair of rockets detonating near him before the second smashed into his structural field and made him stumble somewhat before he threw himself behind cover. In mid-flight, he twisted and got another Nanodart off toward the Banshee before finally falling hard on his ass behind the piece of cover, right before it shook from another rocket impact. Noting his structural fields could still take it even though his armour was visibly damaged, smoking and chipped in some places, Shepard poked his Nanodart Launcher back over the top of the low wall and let fly more Nanodarts as he watched Jedore and Garrus run for the end of the bridge, covered by Grunt and Jack, who were pouring fire into the Banshee to no avail.

The bridge shook again and fell down a short distance with a trembling crash, smashing into another support strut below, apparently, groaning dangerously as the two soldiers continued to run and the battered structure continued to be pummelled by Banshee fire. The crash sent Garrus, who was ahead, stumbling slightly as the bridge lurched to one side alarmingly. Jedore caught up with the Turian and bodily grabbed him, hurling him toward the other side of the gap that had formed with an alarmed scream.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!" The ex-vigilante screeched as he suddenly found himself airborne, apparently, Jedore was not yet familiar with using QP Packs to get the advantage in battle… so she'd done what she could, making sure at least one of them would survive.

Jedore was nearing the edge of the chasm that had been blown in the bridge head, showing a long, long fall down. She picked up speed, heedless of the munitions exploding behind her, tracking her path. The blonde ex-mercenary was about to prepare for a jump when the bridge began to collapse completely, support columns snapping with gunshot-like sounds and power conduits exploding all along the structure as she neared the edge. Her last step was too late, the bridge had already begun its long, long fall toward the surface of Ilium (thankfully, the civilians below had, upon witnessing the fight above, cleared the area via air-taxi rather quickly.) when her armoured foot hit the expanse one last time as she jumped, arms flying up to try to grab onto the edge of the rapidly approaching platform. An explosion blossomed where her foot had been merely a moment ago, causing the shield depletion alarm to being beeping in her helmet, but she ignored it, focused on reaching the other side.

Shepard stared from his position, his Infantry Nanodart Launcher seemingly taking forever to cycle, and time almost slowing down, the gap between the firings of Jack and Grunt's Chainguns drawing itself out, just as the gap between the firings of the Banshee's gun had broadened. There was no way Jedore would make it until she remembered her armour was Coalition Marine Armour and she had a Quantum Propulsion Pack. If she didn't remember, though the fall wouldn't be lethal (even if an air-taxi was on a collision course the armour would navigate for her), it would take a while for them to find her and bring her back up to the battlefield again.

At least, that was what his logical mind said. His more human side was screaming that _SHE'S GONNA FUCKING DIE!_ It was that side that resulted in him vaulting over the low wall he'd been hiding behind and charging toward the bridgehead, darting past Jack and Grunt, who turned their heads toward him as if in slow motion, and throwing himself toward the edge of the abyss… _John Shepard, stop dramatizing things, this is no joke!_ Part of his mind screamed, but he paid it no heed.

The black and red armoured glove was in perfect position to catch the white and green glove coming toward it at high speed, but then John Shepard noticed something behind Jedore. The damned gunship had finally learned to give her a big enough lead. A rocket came flying toward the Aeon Medium Armour as if in slow motion as she fell slowly, still in flight and hand reached out toward Shepard's own. John had been bracing with his other arm wrapped around a support column for a sudden jerk, scaled down by the recoil dampeners of his armour, what he had not been bracing for was the explosion that blossomed nearly in his face and the brown and tarnished white armour that smashed into him, knocking him backward as Jedore's unconscious form smashed down on him.

"Massani! Get off me!" Shepard yelled from his position, since Jedore was literally sprawled over him, her knees on either side of his head and her badly burnt crotch plate stuck in his face, her upper body lying prone and limp on the ground. Sadly, she didn't seem inclined to move, so he stopped waving his pinned arms about, grabbed her hips and rolled her off him to one side as he sat up, feeling another rocket splatter off his over-shield before he scampered toward Jack's cover, dragging his unconscious comrade behind him.

Jack helped drag Jedore behind her cover "That's why you don't leave your ass hanging in front of a gunship, Massani… you must have pretty damned bad luck at the rate you're going, still, you're alright…" She smirked down at the other woman, then frowned "Massani? Talk to me! If you're dead I'm dumping you over the edge!"

"Ugh…" Jedore groaned, feeling the soreness of her bum after being kicked there (though the structural field had spread it out) by the Shockwave Rocket the gunship had fired. "Damn, that hurt." Her fields were still recharging, and her armour slowly repairing, thankfully, her over-shield had rebooted in the time since it had gone down—over-shields and shields were independent systems—she needed to get back in the fight.

The Banshee was near the end of its endurance, the shields flickering as all five of Shepard's crew opened up with all available weapons, hammering away at the Raider Industries product until the shields went off. The Gauss Chaingun and Temporal Fizz Launcher rounds began tearing into its armour, before a Tomcat Autogun round punched through its hull, Garrus having set up his weapon, and a Nanodart from Shepard ended it, tearing the gunship to pieces of flaming scrap that fell toward the ground far below.

"Jedore, are you alright?" Shepard asked in the silence that gripped the battlefield like he was gripping the woman's burnt shoulder pauldrons.

The green helmet optics rolled "I can handle it, Shepard, it didn't blow anything off after all."

Shepard cracked a smile "Good to hear it, need some omni-gel to help your reserves?"

She waved it off "Nah, I'm good, just gotta wait a moment for the repairs to complete."

Shepard nodded and clapped Jedore on the shoulder "Alright, let's move and repair, there aren't any hostiles in the next room, so let's go."

"Found a shipping manifest, proves Pitne For was smuggling this stuff…" Garrus looked up from his newly acquired data pad "Shepard, let's turn this over to Anaya, would do her record good, compensate her for her Justicar troubles."

Shepard looked back as he started hacking into the next door "Makes sense, Garrus, let's get moving… what's a volus doing in here?"

"I am a biotic god! I think things, and they happen! Fear me, lesser creatures, for I am biotics made flesh!" The blue energy tendrils actually came out right through his suit when he flared them.

Shepard was trying not to laugh, a task at which Jack, Grunt, Garrus and Jedore were failing epically at "You need help."

"You need help! You stand before the mightiest biotic ever. Yes, the Asari injecting so many drugs into me was terrifying, but then I began to smell my greatness." Jack sobered up, since the injections and biotics combo was too close to home for comfort. The rest just kept on chuckling. "They may laugh when I fall over, but they don't know what I know in my head," He walked over to Jedore, who was standing next to Shepard "that I know that I am amazingly powerful. Fear me!" he pointed at her, her response was to roll her eyes

"Are you part of Pitne For's trade group?" Shepard asked, after all, not that many volus were consistently around Ilium.

"When I was mortal, I worked for Pitne, poor soul is probably terrified that I have not returned."

Jedore snorted "Yeah, he's so terrified he didn't even mention you were missing, he just wanted to get away."

Garrus clicked his mandibles in agreement "Pitne picks money over friends, unsurprising, I've dealt with his sort enough to know how they work."

The volus waved them off "Bah, I will wreak a just revenge upon his people! But first, the leader of the mercenaries is in the next room." He pointed at the door and turned toward it "I shall toss Wasea about like a rag doll."

Jedore grabbed her LBR off her back, levelling it at the drugged guy's leg "Want me to kneecap this guy so he doesn't follow us around?" Then she lowered the barrel toward the ground "Wait, never mind, he's a volus, that would probably kill him by suit puncture."

The volus missed all this and turned back toward them "I will tear her apart, my biotics are unstoppable!"

Shepard shook his head "Wasea will tear you apart, take a nap… you'll feel better."

The volus turned to the door again "Are you mad? I'm unstoppable! Feasting on her biotic-rich blood will be the last step of my ascension to godhood!" Shepard had finally had enough, so he administered a dose of general anaesthetic, by way of the volus' sir compressor system, the stubby being fell flat on his face from the push that Shepard gave him as the anaesthetic began to take effect. "But… great wind! Biotic god! I'm… I… what was I saying? I'm… tired." He stood back up shakily and turned to Shepard "You… may be right, yes, I'm tired… I'll nap, destroy the universe later…" He stumbled off.

Jedore snorted as they watched him walk off, swaying from side to side "Sleep well, you deluded jackass."

"Damn, here I was hoping I could play soccer with him…"

Garrus frowned "Volus can't play soccer, Grunt, their legs are too short."

Grunt rolled his eyes "They can serve as the ball, right, Shepard?"

"No comment." The squad chuckled at that.

They headed down the corridor to the room the volus claimed the Eclipse captain was in. Opening the door, they saw a purple Asari holding a data pad in armoured fingers, drinking from a glass of… something. She put both down as they entered. "Everything's gone to hell since we smuggled that filthy creature off-world. First a Justicar shows up, now you…" She glowed a brilliant blue with biotics as a canister of the toxin Pitne For smuggled rose into the air and flew at Shepard's squad, who side-stepped, but unfortunately, the canister had enough kinetic energy to register as a threat and exploded against their over-shields "At least I can take pleasure in turning your head into a pulpy mess…" Her polarized visor sealed and she opened fire with something none of them expected, a C-10 Canister Rifle, loaded with Disruptor Ammo. One hit took down Shepard's over-shield by nearly a fifth from the shield-disrupting properties, and the rifle could fire damned fast if you were good, and she was.

"When the hell did the Raiders start selling modded CMC-300s?" Shepard shouted over the din of weapons fire "And when the flying fuck did Eclipse figure out how to refit C-10s with Disruptor Ammo?"

"No clue!" Garrus yelled back. There was a sudden silence in the squad's comms.

"That was a rhetorical question, Garrus." Jedore said, firing over the top of her cover toward the Eclipse heavies on either side of Wasea, gunning one down with an overcharge shot to the head before ducking behind cover as three Disruptor Rockets and a pair of Canister Rifle shots hit her, draining her over-shield in the volley.

The Turian clicked his mandibles as he nailed a Sisterhood Initiate through the throat, causing her head and helmet to go flying up on an explosion of steam as the headless corpse slumped to the ground, still leaking bodily fluids "Hallelujah, now tell me something I don't know."

Grunt propped his Gauss Chaingun up on his cover just before Shepard yelled "No Heavy Weapons guys!"

The Krogan in Seraphim Heavy Armour groaned and drew his Sonic Pulse Shotgun instead, blasting a mercenary's cover and shattering it as the round resonated with the material of the crate and amplified the energy bouncing around inside. The next blast caught the mercenary and shattered her armour. The shockwave killed her and made her skin literally liquefy as her soft tissues melted into slush under the resonance, oozing out onto the ground.

Shepard and Jack had also been racking up kills with biotic blasts and good old fashioned gunfire. Soon, it was down to Wasea herself, Shepard having lost a fragment of his helmet horns/spikes to a narrow miss by Wasea after having been hit by a series of rockets and a toxin canister. The CMC armour could stand up to a lot of punishment, even by Coalition light weaponry, especially now that it was produced by Raider Industries.

She moved a series of heavy canisters with her biotics and formed a barricade around a new area, throwing more of the relatively ineffective toxin canisters… _Okay, they aren't so ineffective after all…_ Shepard thought as Jack was hit in the head by one, falling down with a grunt in the red mist before getting back up, relying on her suit NBCP protection as she hurled a Warp that Wasea dodged before continuing her fire with the powerful C-10 Canister Rifle.

Grunt tried to charge her, but was hit by a Lockdown round which cast a stasis field around his over-shield and slowed him down significantly, so much so that Wasea was able to take down his over-shield AND shield with Disruptor Ammo, whittling down his structural fields slowly before being forced back behind cover by overwhelming fire from the other members of the party.

"Fucking hell, I REALLY need to have a word with Raynor on who the hell he's been selling to…" Shepard growled before running out of patience and throwing an Electron Grenade over Wasea's cover, the explosion being followed by a scream and the bulky CMC-300 armour literally flying over the cover and landing heavily before him, badly shredded and scorched by the Grenade. "DIE BITCH!" He yelled before blasting her in the visor with an LBR Overcharge bolt that punched through what was left of her barriers and through her head, splattering it around the inside of the helmet. Then he tore a hole in the chest of the armour with a long volley of GLMG fire and shoved an Electron Grenade in, ensuring the armour wouldn't be salvaged by the mercs.

"Data pad says 'There's a Justicar here! Probably looking for the one we sent off on the AML Demeter. I was happy to see her go; she chilled me to the bone… I just hope the Justicar doesn't mess up my operation.'" Shepard read while Garrus was busy hacking a terminal for credits, 3000 of them.

Jedore snorted "Demeter? Sounds familiar from one too many vampire novels and movies I've seen over the years. That must be the ship Samara was looking for."

"Want to head back now? Or look around first?" Jack asked, gesturing around at the battered interior of the room they'd been fighting in for the past while.

"We've got time, let's look around some more."

* * *

They found absolutely nothing, except for reclaiming the toxin canisters (and toxins) and converting them to omni-gel (read: mass) so they wouldn't fall into anyone else's hands.

"Let's get back to the main yard at the spaceport." Grunt, well, grunted. "This is getting boring."

"Agreed, we should go, there's nothing useful here."

When they finished backtracking, greatly accelerated by simply plotting the destination into their armour (Grunt, Jack and Jedore still not quite used to using the packs) and letting the QP Packs whip them through the corridors at 288 km/h, the maximum speed unless you toggled the safeties off, they saw the volus they helped earlier standing around "I don't know what they put in me, but I thought I was… well, you saw, thank you, Shepard."

Shepard and co walked by, waving over their shoulders "Don't mention it; I'll see you around, need to get to the station… hey, Pitne For!"

"Thank you for removing the Eclipse threat, Earth-clan! It will take them months to rebuild their infrastructure in the area. Also, merely out of curiosity, did you perhaps run across a shipping manifest that belongs to me?"

Shepard waved the data pad in front of the smuggler's eyes before putting it back in his quantum storage space, which sadly was rather small compared to a Light or even a Medium armour's "You never know when something like this could come in handy."

"If it might change your mind, Earth-clan, returning that manifest would be very profitable for you." The asshole was lucky Samara wasn't around or he'd be leaking out all over the ground right now. In fact, Shepard was tempted to give him some laser-based attention anyways. "If you give it to the detective, her reward will be a pat on the back." _Better than whatever you can give me, smuggler!_ Shepard thought as he walked past the volus into the police station, taking off his helmet as respect to the authorities, though over-shields and shields were kept up.

Shepard and crew approached Samara first, she was sitting on a wall divider, legs crossed and apparently meditating "I've got the name of the ship, your fugitive left here two days ago on the AML Demeter."

She turned her head to regard him, eyes glinting in the light "Shepard, you impress me. You fulfilled your part of the bargain, and I will fulfill mine." She got up from the wall divider, standing next to Anaya's desk. "I am ready to leave immediately, if that will satisfy your superiors, Detective?"

"You're free to go, Justicar, it has been a honour having you in my station. And it's nice you didn't kill me too." The two Asari exchanged a nod of respect.

Shepard got Samara's attention back with "The Eclipse smuggled an Ardat-Yakshi off-world, she's who you're really after, isn't she?"

Samara tilted her head slightly "You continue to impress. Yes, I was here tracking the Ardat-Yakshi. She is a dangerous criminal, and I will bring her to justice… after your mission is complete, of course."

Shepard nodded thoughtfully "You're sworn to follow a code that dictates your decisions, but I'm running a military operation."

Samara crossed her arms in front of her chest "You wonder if I will refuse to follow orders because of my code?"

Shepard shrugged and shook his head "I can't allow that to happen."

"By agreeing to follow you, I am compelled to swear the most difficult of Justicar oaths, the Third Oath of Subsumation. After I do, your orders will override the code. You should know, however, that I'll still give you my opinion if the situation warrants."

"The Normandy's Restorer T3 AA Gunship…" he paused upon realizing that was probably pointless information "Anyways, our shuttle is docked near the trading floor, you have an omni-tool, yes?"

"Of course." Samara brought up the omni-tool that enveloped her left arm in the orange console glow.

"Here's a holo of the Restorer," He sent her the image with his suit computers, the hologram popping up in front of his chest holo-projector "it's easy to find, I'll see you aboard."

"I must be sworn to your service, so that I am never forced to choose between your orders and the Code." Shepard simply nodded, watching as Samara blinked and her eyes began to glow silver with her psychic energy, keeping an eye on the psychic defence system readouts on his armour just in case there was some sort of backlash. She knelt on one knee, planting her hands on the ground, and bowed her head, detective Anaya stood up from her console to watch the proceedings "By the Code I will serve you, Shepard, your choices are my choices, your morals are my morals, your wishes are my Code." She flared blindingly bright with biotics, which continued to ripple softly over her form as she stood again, eyes glowing as she opened them, before both biotics and eyes dimmed.

"I never thought I'd see a Justicar swear an oath like that." Anaya breathed from where she stood, next to Shepard and her console.

"If you make me do anything extremely dishonourable, I may need to kill you when I am released from my oath."

Shepard nodded in respect "I can see that this is a very important act, Samara, thank you."

"Truly, the life of a Justicar can get lonely, I admit, I am looking forward to serving with a company of honourable heroes." _Oh boy, Samara, just wait until Joker shows you Company of Heroes: Tales of Valour or at least the newest remake…_ John thought before Samara continued "Shall we return to your ship?"

"I need to speak to the detective." The Justicar nodded affirmative before walking over to stand behind Shepard's crew, Anaya stopped watching Samara and shifted her body so she was facing Shepard.

"For the record, thanks for getting Samara out of my district," She looked down at the desk for a moment when her console beeped, but it turned out to be nothing "I can tell my granddaughters about meeting a Justicar, and you've just upped my chances of living long enough to have grandkids."

Shepard fished the downloaded recording of Elnora's excited voice log from his storage space, which most Marines jokingly termed "Inventory" for its item-holding capabilities "I have proof that Eclipse killed the volus merchant."

"Let's see what you've got there then…" Shepard tossed the data pad onto the desk so that it rotated perfectly into reading position when it came to rest. "Hmm… Interesting…" She looked up after reading through the pad "but I can't verify it, it would be inadmissible."

"I vouch for Shepard and any evidence he brings forward." Samara stated from beside Grunt.

"I accept the judgement of the Justicar." Anaya grinned, to Shepard, it was obvious she'd be getting a lot of red tape out of her way with that, it seemed Samara would be good to have on the team, even politically. "Thanks, Shepard, I wasn't sure about trusting a stranger, and a human, at that. But you came through. It's a shame this Elnora escaped, but I'll get her. At least you've put her on the run. Okay, enough with all the congratulations, I've still got a spiralling crime rate to deal with…" She went back to her work.

"I have proof that Pitne For smuggled in red sand and illegal weapons tech."

Anaya looked up and smiled gratefully "I'll send in some officers to arrest him and his cohorts. This is a big help, Shepard. I can't do much to thank you, but we do have a small discretionary bounty fund, here, take this." Shepard accepted the credit chit.

"Thank you, detective. Come on guys, let's move."

* * *

"Hey, Commander, Justicar Samara requested a room with a view of space, so I gave her the Forward Starboard Observation Deck on the Crew Deck, oh, Miranda needs to talk to you urgently and ideally in private."

"Got it, Jacob, thanks for the warning." Shepard opened a private channel to Miranda's office, which was attached to her quarters. For some reason, it seemed the Loft deck was reserved for him and someone else, as the two sets of quarters were effectively identical, mirror images of one another and directly under the three Medium Oblivion Cannons arranged in a triangular formation on top of the tallest part of the Destroyer's hull. Miranda's quarters were one of the two (the other was Jacob's) with an active office section, making it half again as large as a typical set of quarters.

He headed down to the XO's quarters, locking the door behind him before turning to look at Miranda expectantly.

"Shepard, I find myself in the unfortunate position of needing to ask for your help…"

* * *

A/N: Someone made a Starcraft 2 Paraphrase, can you spot it?

Land vehicle guessing still open! (Use review, if you haven't already) Candidate List at end of Ch 9!

Next Chapter already written, the more reviews (and guessed, but **don't repeat-guess**), the faster I update!


	12. My Sister's Chaser

A/N: The first Loyalty Mission… Couldn't think of anything better for anti-Keeper… ORIANA ACTUALLY LOOKS LIKE MIRANDA IN MY CONTINUITY!

Disappointingly few reviews last chapter, relatively, or even the one before that… maybe I should put on the posting throttle again…

* * *

Chapter 12: My Sister's Chaser

_Ilium, January 2, 3871_

"You're bringing _Jack_?" Miranda said, right eye twitching slightly "But… why?"

"So that I can see how messed up you are and make nice with you after realizing mine isn't the only fucking childhood sob story on the ship, cheerleader, or at least, that's what Shepard's thinking, though he didn't say it." The convict turned to glare at Shepard and growled "And don't you DARE deny it, I'm not stupid, unlike the cheerleader here." They'd all gotten the briefing of how Miranda had been engineered from the genetic material of former Avatar of War Jaran Marxon by the Order of the Illuminate toward the end of the Infinite War in anticipation of supplanting Princess Rhianne with a perfect specimen of Aeon and starting a genetic dynasty. She eventually rebelled and broke out with her sister in tow, and now Oriana was in trouble. Or at least, that's what Shepard had told them all when he dragged them up to Miranda's quarters on the Crew Deck, one of the two closest to the bridge of the ship, only a few steps in the hall away. (Joker's quarters were attached to the bridge, so that didn't count, and Shepard's, along with an empty duplicate, were in the Loft Deck, a long way from the bridge).

"Commander, Miranda's contact is at the Eternity bar, she will be sitting at one of the tables." EDI told them over the comm. as Jack, Jedore, Miranda and Jacob filed out of the Restorer behind Shepard. It had been rather retarded how they'd gone down to the planet, back up, and down again, but that was life.

* * *

The blue-purple Asari greeted them with "Miss Lawson? I'm glad you made it, we've had a complication."

"What happened? Is Oriana alright?"

The Asari replied with "She's fine, but… you listed a man named Niket as your trusted source? He contacted me, warning that what's left of the Order has sent Eclipse mercenaries to make a sweep. He suggested that the mercs might be watching for you personally. He's offered to escort Oriana's family to the terminal instead."

Shepard glanced at Miranda "You didn't mention anything about Niket."

Miranda turned her head toward Shepard for a moment "He's a friend, he and I go back a long way."

"Do you want to bring in any of your other Ilium contacts, Miss Lawson?" The Asari asked.

Miranda turned back to her contact "No, you and Niket are the only two I trust on this."

Shepard pressed for info "What information do you have about the mercenaries?"

The Asari shrugged "I've confirmed that they're Eclipse, and that they're working for an organization Ms. Lawson warned us about. I could try to alert the authorities but so far they've done nothing illegal."

Miranda stepped forward slightly "you made the right decision, we'll handle this ourselves"

Shepard asked "It's your sister, Miranda, what do you want to do?"

"Lanteia, we'll follow Niket's suggestion. Shepard and I will take the Restorer and draw their attention. Have Niket escort the family to the shuttle. Give him full access to the family itinerary, just to be safe."

Lanteia nodded "Understood, Ms. Lawson."

Shepard turned toward Miranda "So the plan is for us to go shoot up Eclipse while your sister gets to safety?"

"Eclipse will be under orders to take my sister alive. They won't risk anything that could kill her. Yes, that's basically the plan."

"Ready when you are, Miranda." They walked away from Lanteia back toward the Restorer

"Thank you, Shepard, I appreciate this… I hadn't planned on Eclipser, but they never planned on you."

* * *

Touchdown at the cargo terminal was a total massacre when they unleashed the full firepower of the Restorer against the Eclipse Banshees in the area, the active camouflage, of similar style to the active camo of all Coalition units, restricting their accurate sighting distance to only a few hundred meters, but no matter, the Restorer could survive low-yield nukes with impunity, so the Banshees were swatted like flies.

The squad charged out of the Restorer as soon as it touched down, and the gunship flew off, Joker controlling it from the Normandy. Sure, there were Eclipse foot soldiers in the area, but using the Restorer's Quad Light Laser carried a risk of collapsing the deck of the cargo terminal, so they were going to go toe-to-toe with them, of course, after the previous mishaps, all the troops not familiar with it had been taught how to use QP Packs. They landed and walked out of the Restorer, which flew off. Shepard grabbed the first convenient salvage he found off a dead merc before looking up.

"You're the bitch that kidnapped our boss's little girl!" The Eclipse leader, a Salarian, said, walking up.

"Kidnapped? This doesn't involve you; I suggest you and your men leave."

"Think you've got it all lined up, huh? Captain Enyala's already moving in on the kid, she knows about Niket. He won't be helping you."

Miranda's voice hardened from its usual tone "You lie." Shepard was suddenly acutely reminded of the mission logs his mother had let him watch, of Princess Rhianne's conversation with Evaluator Kael during Operation: Red Flag, on Blue Sky.

Shepard's optics blazed blood-red "What do you mean Niket won't be helping us?"

"Nothing you need to worry about, nobody's going to get killed unless you do something stupid."

Shepard shifted his grip on his newly acquired weapon "I'm giving you one chance to leave, more than most get."

"Captain Enyala ordered us to give you one chance to walk away. But this whole time we've been talking, my men have been lining up shots. When I say the word, we unleash hell on your squad, so I suggest you walk away nicely, unless you want things to get ugly…" The Salarian gloated before Shepard extended and rammed his recently-acquired—having picked it up off a dead merc in the wreck of an Eclipse Banshee—Gauss Rifle's bayonet through his Salarian head and with a tug ripped it off in a gesture of intimidation. Shepard used the horns on the back of the amphibian-derived sentient's head as if they were some sort of grotesque sighting device for the Gauss Rifle as he mowed down another pair of Eclipse Troopers before throwing the underpowered (except for the bayonet, which was nice for intimidation) weapon bayonet-first at an Eclipse Vanguard who had to stop shooting to parry it aside with her own Gauss Rifle. John drew his Gauss LMG, which was far more lethal, and opened fire while rolling behind cover.

Miranda, Jack, Jacob and Jedore had each gotten kills as they fired from cover, the latter two relying on GLMG and LBR Assault Sniping, while Miranda used Lift and her dual SMGs in conjunction, while Jack threw out Warps and Shockwaves, blasting the Mercs out of cover and finishing them with her shotgun.

Shepard noted a fuel canister over the last few mercs and sprayed it with Gauss LMG rounds, high explosive rounds. Needless to say, the flaming fuel canister exploded and splattered the mercs below, burning their armour and flesh as they flailed about, Salarian and Asari screams mixing in a symphony of pain.

"I almost feel sorry for them… almost." Shepard said as they strolled past the burning mercenaries, some of which had already gone limp in death, putting merciful shots into them and ending their pain. "Picking up more contacts up ahead past the right turn, be careful." The squad followed as he poked his LBR around the corner, seeing the mercs behind cover "Everybody cloak, get behind cover and get ready to play Whack-A-Mole."

"I like the way you think, Shepard." Jack cackled as they all disappeared from sight, only remaining as wire frame images on each other's HUDs. "I want the front position, my shotgun's too slow for long range work."

"I'm going for the other forward position, SMGs aren't as good as GLMGs or LBRs for range." Miranda said, ghosting past and into position while Jacob took up position next to her and Shepard took position in the cover behind Jack's, next to Jedore.

"Alright, everyone in position?" A series of affirmative checkmarks next to the squad panel indicators popped into existence on Shepard's HUD. "Weapons free."

The Eclipse troops were caught totally by surprise, most of them being blown to bloody pieces before they could react, but the return fire forced Shepard's squad back behind their cover from the sheer amount of Gauss Rifle, P-38 and K-12 fire that passed over their heads. The Disruptor Ammo they were using was wreaking havoc with the squad's over-shields whenever they took a hit.

"Damn it, guys, cloak and move to new positions, they're suppressing us!" Shepard called before lobbing two Electron Grenades to cover their advance. Explosions and screams of pain announced the success of the grenades, and the suppressing fire let up slightly "GIVE IT TO THEM!" Shepard bellowed, standing up from his position and letting rip with GLMG and LBR both on full auto, ripping into the Eclipse troops, who, despite their improved weapons posing threats in numbers were still extraordinarily fragile compared to the Coalition Marines. Needless to say, they were torn down rather quickly, before the squad could take any real damage to their Structural fields. After all, Disruptor Ammo was effective against shields, but it wasn't nearly as good against structural fields.

They entered the elevator at the end of the path without further ado after stripping the dead mercs of all potentially useful goods to liquidate in future for credits. "Hang on, I've got one of their radios. I'll patch us in, see if I can get an idea what we're up against." Miranda said, kneeling on one knee and hacking into the device, intercepting the Eclipse communications and listening. Technically, it wasn't a radio, but most races still addressed it as such in nostalgia.

Miranda stood back up after doing as she said "Shepard, I owe you an explanation… Oriana is my twin, genetically. But the Order… grew her when I was a teenager. She was meant to replace me, I couldn't let the Order do to her what they did to me, so I rescued her, she's almost a woman now." She looked toward the elevator control panel.

Shepard crossed his arms as the elevator moved absurdly slowly toward their destination "Why didn't you tell me that we're saving a kid?"

"She's not a child, she'll be 19 this year, but… well, it didn't seem relevant at the time, I suppose. There are people who'd use her against me. I'm very protective when it comes to Oriana." _Makes sense, if she looks anything like you do, especially if she's blonde instead, she'll probably have had so many suitors that she would almost guaranteed BE a woman, with you around, she probably will never be… what am I thinking? Damn you, sarcastic yet overly objective brain!_ Shepard was thinking. "I'm sorry I didn't trust you sooner, you deserved to know."

"If Eclipse knows where Oriana is, we'll need to hurry."

Shepard nodded "Agreed, I'm a bit worried about what the merc said. If they've got to Niket somehow, this is going to be harder than I'd planned."

Miranda ignored him "According to the specs I reviewed, we'll need to cut through the cargo processing yard to get to Oriana."

"Good, got any data on the area?"

"Of course, there are conveyors in the area…" Miranda answered just before the elevator door opened and the squad disembarked into the container processing area. "So, it'll be more difficult for enemies to acquire and target us in this mess." She noted, looking around at the shifting containers. Everyone else had taken to keeping an eye on their HUD Radar display. "Some of those containers contain hazardous materials too." While Miranda was talking, Shepard had scurried into a container to their right, to grab a data pad with credits that someone had foolishly forgotten, the result was Miranda looking at where Shepard had been, doing a double-take and helmet-palming as the marker for Shepard appeared over a cargo container on her HUD "Shepard…" She groaned "Can we get on with the mission?"

Her response was "Let's go!" as Shepard charged past her and the squad toward the other end of the container processing room, not even waiting for a reply.

* * *

Jack was shot in the shoulder by a P-38 as they moved across the second conveyor. However, the inbuilt medical systems of her armour extracted the flechette shell casing and toxic payload (it was a modded round) before they could do too much damage. The Convict hissed slightly as she felt the neurotoxin begin attacking nerves, then sighed in relief as anti-toxins poured into her bloodstream from her armour as the over-shield firmed up again, providing protection for now.

"I don't care how many mechs you lose, just stall them, damn it! Niket is nearing the transit terminal!" Enyala yelled as they mowed down more mercs and LOKIs. After they grabbed everything in the area, they began moving to the third area, leaving dozens of Asari and Salarian bodies behind them. "Divert everyone except my guard from Niket. I'll handle him and the kid personally."

Shepard growled as they fought across the next room "Up and over! We need to get past them FAST! Dodge whatever you can, and kill them before they can shoot you, go, GO!" He was first into the air, gunning down two Eclipse Troopers before they could move their Salarian feet from where they were suddenly exposed, then moving on the an Eclipse Vanguard. "Kill them, KILL THEM ALL!" He shouted to the room at large as he and his squad tore into the mercenaries with their guns and minds.

"Eclipse Operatives have attempted to delay you by disabling the elevators. I am overriding their lockdown." EDI announced.

"Good on you, EDI, damn, more incoming, take cover." Shepard glanced at the shield and over-shield readouts for the team on his squad panel "Shit…heavy weapons authorized!"

With a pair of Gauss Chainguns, ULPA, and two Temporal Fizz Launchers, the area became a bloodbath, especially since Shepard's crew wasn't paying so much attention to staying behind cover, instead deciding to do it in "kill them all before they can kill us" fashion, most of the time, hits wouldn't pierce their armour anyways, even if they didn't have structural fields, which they did. Disruptor ammo was NOT effective against structural fields.

They managed to kill all the mercs after a while and rushed into the elevator once EDI declared ti clear. Enyala came over the comm. "Niket has reached the terminal. He'll switch the family over to our transport"

Miranda looked up, startled "Niket? But… that can't be right. Maybe the captain knows we're listening in and she's feeding misinformation about Niket making a switch. Or maybe it means something else… Niket wouldn't do that. Damn it, why won't this thing go any faster?"

"What makes you so sure Niket wouldn't turn on you?"

"He could've turned on me when I ran away, I'm sure the Order tried to pay him off… If he didn't do it then, why would he do it now?"

"Maybe you're right, Miranda, let's hope you are."

* * *

"Listen to me! I've got authorization to change their booking!"

The Asari shrugged "I'm sorry sir, we're under security lockdown, until the situation in the cargo terminal is resolved, no passengers can be re-booked."

Enyala spoke from where she sat on a cargo crate "This isn't worth my time, Niket, I get paid regardless how the girl gets there."

"No! I was told I could handle this my way! We're not going to traumatize the family any more than we…" the elevator opened to his right, and Niket stopped talking. "Miri…" he whispered, recognizing the distinctive paint pattern Miranda had painstakingly applied then locked into her Seraphim Medium Armour (so that repairs would maintain the pattern).

"This should be fun…" Enyala said, jumping down from the crate she'd been sitting on in her CMC-300 armour and grabbing her specially customized Gauss Rifles, levelling both at Shepard's crew, in return, seven weapons were levelled at her, two GLMGs, two Phasic Shotguns, an LBR, and Miranda's dual SMGs. The spaceport administration person looked between the two parties and began to run, but a single Gauss Rifle round from Enyala cut through her spine and splattered most of her internal organs out in front of her, leaving her flying to drown in a pool of her own organs while she rapidly bled out.

"Niket… you sold me out."

Shepard shifted his grip on his LBR slightly "How do you want to handle this, Miranda?"

"Why, Niket?" The woman seemed on the verge of tears "You were my friend, you helped me get away form the Order."

"Yes! Because you wanted to leave, that was your choice! But if I'd known that you'd stolen a baby…" Niket yelled, though his arms still were up in the air in surrender.

"I didn't steal her! I rescued her!" Miranda bellowed.

"From a life of wealth and happiness once you'd destroyed the tissue samples? You weren't saving her, you were getting back at the Order!"

"How did the Order of the Illuminate turn you?" Shepard growled, red helmet optics flaring dangerously at the Order-affiliated man.

Niket's hands went down slowly "They told me you'd kidnapped your baby sister all those years ago, they said I could help get her back peacefully, no trauma to the family. I told them that you'd never do that, that they could go to hell." He waved dismissively "Then you finally told me what you'd done." Niket crossed his arms in front of his chest. "I called them back that night."

"Why didn't you call me, Niket? We've been through a lot, you could've at least let me explain."

"I deserved to know that you'd stolen your sister, Miri, I deserved to know you'd joined the Cybran Nation's Marines, but I had to hear it from the Order first."

"How much did the Order pay you?" Nanolathe credits existed mainly for regulating human tendencies and because food still had to be grown, not lathed, as it was impossible to get it to taste normal being lathed.

At least the man had the decency to look and sound guilty "A great deal."

Miranda was obviously about to crack, her SMGs shaking and optics absolutely blindingly bright "Damn it, Niket! You were the only one I trusted from that life!"

"They knew you felt that way, that's why they bought me…"

"So you just took their money." Miranda growled coldly.

"Don't get holy with me, Miranda, you took their money for years." Niket snapped back, stupid considering he had guns pointed at him, and no shields, fields or protection of any description.

"If Niket knows about Oriana, then your father does too. Relocating her won't work."

"The Order has no information about Oriana." Niket had just sealed his doom "I knew you had spy programs in the Order's networks, Miri, so I kept it private, I'm the only one who knows." He stepped forward a coupe steps, obviously, he wasn't a soldier.

"Which means that you're the only loose end" _Good girl, Miranda, that's the right sort of conclusion to reach as a spec ops soldier, but he meant well, give him a chance…_ John thought "This isn't how I wanted it to end, Niket. I'm going to miss you." She levelled her Gauss SMG with her left hand just before Shepard grabbed it and yanked it up.

"Miranda, wait, you don't want to do this!" He yelled, trying to wrestle both SMGs out of her hands.

"This has to end here, Shepard, the Order will keep trying to find Oriana."

"Maybe Niket can help, talk to the Order, tell them you got here first."

"I'll… I'll tell them that you hid her, that I don't know where she is now…" Niket scratched the back of his head.

"I never want to see you again, Niket—" Miranda was cut off by a blood-red, wickedly shaped bayonet punching through Niket's chest from behind.

Enyala spoke up "Done, now, if you don't mind, I have a shipment to deliver." She still didn't pull the bayonet out, leaving it in the dying mans body as he gurgled for air, his airways blocked by blood and steel.

The bayonet was finally pulled out by Miranda grabbing the Asari in a biotic field, just before hitting her with a Psi blast that sent her flying to the other end of the huge dock. Numerous Eclipse mercs began flooding in, and Shepard shook his head "Screw this…" HE yanked his Nanodart Launcher off his back "SCREW THEM ALL!" He opened fire.

Jack cackled as her Chaingun whirred away "Screwing all those Asari I understand, Shepard, but the Salarians? That I do not."

"You mean you don't get… Jack, bend that Salarian over that crate." He used his HUD eye tracker to designate the two items of interest. The biotic did as she was told and was treated to Shepard putting an LBR bolt, in sniper made, through the Salarian's back armour and his entire body, going out the top of his head "That answer your question?"

"Damn, Shepard, you're creative… never thought of that before…" Jack almost sounded like she was admiring Shepard.

The three bridge areas of the dock were easy to cover, quickly becoming kill-zones as the Gauss Chainguns, using gun-cam, laid down a murderous (though not terribly accurate due to the gun-cam jerking somewhat) field of fire, cutting Eclipse troops' barriers and shields down quickly before quite often shearing their bodies down to size.

The firefight was long, tough and brutal with the enemy's improved equipment, especially when Enyala pinned Jacob down with grenade launcher fire before cutting through his over-shield, shield and hacking into his structural fields with her Gauss Rifles, the man being stunned by her biotics. A biotic blast from Jack resulted in the hack that had aimed for a small fracture in the neck armour by her right bayonet slicing into Jacob's left shoulder instead before Enyala went flying again, minus one Gauss Rifle that Jacob ripped out of his shoulder to let the armour's repair and medical suites do their work, hissing in irritation. The arm would be using the automated servos for the next couple minutes, maybe more, as the broken blood vessels, ripped muscles and severed nerves were repaired by medi-gel and Tissue Regeneration Accelerators. Many thought the latter was Koprulu Tech, but the version their medics used was a far more primitive variant that the UED and later Earth Empire had access to, over a thousand years ago. The version in his armour was far superior to that.

"You alright, Jacob?" Miranda yelled, having seen the status indicator changes on her HUD, while she fired into a group of mercs with her ULPA, blasting them about and apart.

He gripped his Gauss LMG by the trigger and handle, one-handed, and held it in the crook of his arm as he opened fire, spraying the mercs with armour-piercing ammunition, roaring in anger and pain. "I'll live!" The black man yelled as he kept up the fire, focusing on Enyala.

"Glad to hear it!" Miranda and Shepard yelled at the same time as they too focused on the Asari in CMC Armour. It didn't take long before she went down or rather flew apart to Nanodart fire from Shepard.

"Hell, about time we finished…" Shepard said in the sudden silence of the battlefield "let's loot!" He called before heading over to and hacking a terminal for 3000 credits. Once there were no more goodies, they went for the elevator.

"There could be more Eclipse mercs near the shuttle, I want to make sure Oriana and her family get on safely." Miranda said as they entered the elevator, Shepard nodded and punched in the appropriate floor. She hung her head "I can't believe Niket sold me out, I didn't even see ti coming…"

"You couldn't have, Miranda, usually people don't backstab you AFTER you've attained all primary objectives…" Shepard clapped her on the shoulder "tower".

Miranda spun around "why didn't you let me kill him? I could have handled that. But watching him get stabbed by that Asari bitch…" She punched Shepard's chest plate in frustration.

"You still cared for him, even if he betrayed you."

Miranda slumped, defeated "You're right, and the Order knew it, they used that against me… It's always been like this, the Order gave me anything I wanted, but there was always a hook, an angle for their long-term plan. I threw away everything they ever gave me when I ran, except Niket, weakness on my part."

Shepard took a step closer "You still have Oriana."

"The Order didn't give her to me, I rescued her… but yes, you're right, I still have something, thank you."

* * *

"No sign of Eclipse, looks like we're clear." All the squad members holstered their weapons at Shepard's pronouncement.

"There she is." Miranda gestured with her helmet "She's safe…" She smiled "With her family." Miranda blinked several times before closing her eyes for a long moment as if trying to commit the scene to memory. "Come on, we should go."

"Don't you want to even go say hello?" _Huh, she's not blonde; in fact, she looks almost exactly like Miranda but with shorter hair, huh… At least she looks nothing like Michael Jackson, not that I'd ever say that to Miranda._

Miranda glared at Shepard, taking off her helmet, the first sign of already conceding something to Shepard's plan "It's not about what I want, it's about what's right for her. The less she knows about me, the better. She's got a family, a life. I'll just complicate that for her."

"She doesn't need any details, but would it be so bad for her to know she has a sister who loves her?"_ If that doesn't cut it I'll go into practicality and the fact that if she ever gets attacked back in Cybran Space, she'll at least know it's coming…_

Miranda looked down, clipping her helmet to her belt line "I guess not."

"Go on, we'll wait here." John gestured encouragingly, earning him a smile from Miranda before she walked off. Watching her retreating back, and literally her back, not her backside, Shepard sighed "Good luck, Miranda." He frowned when he heard Jedore snicker. "What's so funny?" The blonde pointed to his other side, and when he turned his head he actually did a double-take before muting his external speakers (to avoid mass panic) and hissing "Jack! Stop juggling grenades, this is a public spaceport"

* * *

_CSC Normandy, January 3, 3871_

Shepard settled into the seat opposite his XO in her office, putting down his absurdly tall cylindrical bowl, filled with Gardner's noodles, which, like everything the Master Chef prepared, was excellent "Hey, Miranda, how are you holding up?"

"I'm fine, thank you, Shepard, my sister is safe again thanks in large part to you, I won't forget that." Miranda walked over to and sat down on her office couch, Shepard turning the chair in front of her desk around to face her, leaving the noodles to cool on her desk. She looked him up and down before speaking "I… wanted to apologize. I didn't believe you were fully up to the task, and it seems I was wrong. Frankly, based on what I've seen I wish I had volunteered to join your crew earlier, during the Saren-hunt."

John Shepard frowned as he regarded the Sentinel "With your intelligence, you could have landed any job you wanted, why choose this?"

Miranda shrugged in her white and black skin-tight cat suit, as most of the crew referred to it as… out of her hearing range, of course "Because I still envy the time Mordin spent with the STG, working with people as smart as he was. The Cybran Nation, unlike the UEF or Aeon, never tells me something is impossible, they give me my resources, usually a crew of other volunteers of similar aptitude and say 'Do it'. They've given you even more, your old life, your old ship, a new life, a new ship, Doctor Brackman's personal attention…"

"Best thing he did was put you on my squad." _Yeah, I really don't have enough Sentinels on this crew, probably should go recruit more, they're nice and balanced compared to Soldiers like me._ Shepard thought, mentally kicking back and relaxing.

"You'd have done fine without me." John did a mental eye-roll at Miranda's words _Bullshit, biotics, tech AND weapons? No way I could have done without at least one generalist, even if on my old team I had enough multi-specialists i.e. Garrus and Wrex to compensate, it was still nice brining Kaidan out on the occasional side mission._ "I may not have believed it before, but I don't have what you do." John's mind was sing-song-ing _You can do anything if you try, you can do anything if you try!_ Miranda kept talking, looking down at her lap now "That fire that makes people willing to follow you into hell itself." She sighed and stood up, walking over to the virtual view port, a holographic window, and looking out at the stars outside the Coalition Destroyer, resting one hand on her hip, with her back turned to him "The Order got me the best genes available in the Illuminate, guess it wasn't enough…"

Shepard frowned deeply, it wouldn't do to have a squad member with such low self-esteem, sure, Kelly was ostensibly the ship's counsellor, but Miranda would be far too proud to approach her for real help… he'd have to do "You always bring up your genetic tailoring, it really bothers you, doesn't it?" He got up from the couch and began walking toward her.

"This is what I am, Shepard, I can't hide it…" She shook her head as he approached, going around her coffee table "The intelligence, the looks…" _I'm sorry, but you'd be so much better off blonde, then again, Rhianne's blonde, so the Order wouldn't want you to look like her too much. Damn it, Shepard, we're trying to get her self-esteem up, not smash it into the floor!_ Shepard thought as Miranda continued "Even the biotics, they built all that… every one of your accomplishments are due to your skill." She closed her eyes and bowed her head "The only things I can take credit for are my mistakes."

"I can't admire your body or your mind?" _Nice, Shepard, didn't lie by talking about her face… but still gonna boost her confidence a bit, that was a close one, she's tough to compliment without sounding like you want a relationship. After all, her body is pretty decent, not as perfect as Liara's was but still… mind's pretty sharp too, what with me being a Cybran, I gotta respect that._ "You give the Order too much credit. Yeah, they gave you gifts, but you can and should be proud of what you've done with them."

"Oh… thank you…" She raised her head again and turned around, hips swaying slightly as she did, her heels making clicking sounds on the deck… _How does she put up with wearing heels so often? Then again inside the ship she doesn't do that much walking around, and she uses the boots that come with her armour anyways in battle… right._ "Perhaps I wouldn't mind if you admired my body." She actually wouldn't, it had been a while since the last time someone had, and she needed to get over Jacob, perhaps a fling with Shepard would help.

_I think she's taking it the wrong way, bail out, Shepard, bail out!_ His brain screamed at him, part of it, the other part was saying that _At least she won't be too annoyed if you watch her for too long, being an ex-Aeon in Cybran Space, she might need watching, specially if she was Order-affiliated… Besides, according to Liara, it would be alarming to her if you didn't notice other women._ "You wouldn't, huh?" That was the only thing he could come out with for now, stalling for time.

"I think I could live with it." She sashayed a bit closer, Shepard could feel the hairs on the back of his neck stand up as his body reacted with a fight-or-flight response, blushing slightly.

He'd never told Tali, but he also had a babbling habit when he was nervous, James used to tease him for it, but somehow, given that James had informed him he was out helping guard the Migrant Fleet, John doubted James would tease him about it if Tali was near. He inched away slowly, keeping his eyes fixed on the sea-green eyes of the predator before him "It's only fair, you've had two years to look at me, and I was wearing a whole lot less than you are." _Yeah, I probably wasn't wearing much skin on my flesh over most of those two years you spent putting my bits and pieces together… but what the hell's with the babbling, the first rule of holes: when you're in one, stop digging…_ The rational part of his mind said, the other part, the part that was like every normal, reasonably young male, who wasn't damaged (which he used to be) was snidely remarking _Liara sure didn't mind when you kept digging around with your fingers… or tongue for that matter._

"Shepard… wait." Miranda said, holding up a hand "I need to think about this." She really did, she didn't feel entirely comfortable advancing on Shepard, and his counter-strike had left her reeling for some reason. _Damn… you're still not over Jacob? What's wrong with you? Not like you haven't used men for long-term relaxation before him… _Her logical mind said before another part of her, this one probably more innocent, snickered _Maybe the Order did more than mess with your genes and fuck up your childhood, Miranda, maybe they altered your brain too…_

Shepard nodded mutely, thinking _Ah good; hopefully, it's about the fact that she is greater than the sum of her parts, and not about my disastrously bad abilities at talking to women, and the fact that I haven't had practice keeping my mind away from sex-related thoughts since I was what? Twelve? Thirteen? Something like that? Damn… Ash must have done more damage than either of us thought…_

"Always a good thing to do" They shared a smile at that, then he removed the top of his tall cylindrical bowl, revealing it to be two cylindrical bowls stacked atop one another, each covered by a glass lid "I brought you dinner, Miranda, you didn't come down to the Mess Hall, and Jack and Grunt were about to get into a food-eating contest, gonna be more than an hour before Gardner can get another batch ready, eat up while it's hot. You're a biotic, you don't want to go hungry, we non-biotics tend to get scared when a biotic is upset at the lack of food." He handed her the larger bowl and the chopsticks required for eating the food.

"Thank you, Shepard, I wasn't expecting this…"

Shepard wanted to say _I wasn't expecting you to take my words that way either but lo and behold that's life_ but then thought better of it, she needed to get her self-esteem up, and if there was one thing people knew about John Shepard, it was that he would go to extraordinary lengths to help his crew. They ate in silence until he looked up "Your sister sent me an e-mail, and it says… well, you read it."

_From: Oriana (Lawson)_

I hope this is the right Commander Shepard. I'm Oriana. My sister only told me a little, but I don't think it occurred to her that I'm as smart as she is. I poked around a little and found an information broker (a certain Liara T'Soni) who got me this address… for free, odd.

I got to thank her, but I never got to thank you for helping me. My parents don't really understand it, but I know how much Miranda did, how many little things over the years were her looking out for me. I'm not going to tell them. I still want to go to school and get some degrees. But I wanted you to know that I know you saved me.

I had a guardian angel all these years. I don't know if my sister has anybody. She said she's working for you, and it was pretty clear that you were doing something dangerous. Make sure she comes back alive, okay?

-Oriana

PS: Don't tell her I sent you this. It would just make her angry.

PPS: Miranda, quit looking at Shepard's messages. Oh, don't act like you don't. It's what I'd do.

Shepard and Miranda looked at each other and shared a laugh over it "Did you know Jack was juggling grenades again while you went to talk to your sister?"

Miranda gaped for only a second before frowning "Really? I was thinking she'd be juggling her weapons…" That got a laugh out of John Shepard as well, and the continued the amicable conversation as they ate their food, Miranda leaving her old table manners behind slightly and mimicking Shepard's quick and efficient eating. Both looked at each other before chuckling (though this may have been more to Kasumi's calls for more, audible through the PA since apparently Joker's comm. was near enough to pick it up, than to their eating) and continuing to slurp their noodles. _It's good to see I can melt through her Ice Queen exterior, Miranda needs to warm up. Jacob's a great guy, and if she can't get her act together and grab him back soon he'll be off the market, I've seen the way Kasumi looks at him…_

* * *

A/N: I'm putting on the posting throttle, at least four or five reviews (NOT One-liners, please **suggest or request something**, or ask questions) before I update again… otherwise this is going to barrel ahead at an insane pace that most readers won't realize has grown by like three chapters in two and a half days since they last checked (yes, one-village-idiot, I'm looking at you, you haven't reviewed for the past two chapters…).

The next chapter's already written (I'm just that fast), how soon I post depends on the number of reviews. (If you haven't yet, guess the land vehicle of the Normandy II.)


	13. When the Stars Grow Old

A/N: James Shepard is about to get worried…

Also, the reasons why I didn't put in the locket side-quest will be explained when John meets with Hannah and Benezia (which will be a while later since he wants to finish his mission, and maybe try getting through to Liara, first, before going to face certain death by Benezia and his mother, but of course, it's before Omega 4).

Sorry one-village-idiot, but I already have plans prepared for Samara, Tychus, Zeratul, etc. To people who want ACU warfare or Space combat, there won't be too much (though still some interesting stuff eventually) in this fic, since that's not really what Mass Effect is about, but I guarantee there will be that sort of thing in other fics I have planned. Also, bringing in Raider armour on the Normandy will be difficult, as it would take up the whole hallway (it is to regular Marine armour what Mgalekgolo is to Sangheili in size, similar role too, go figure).

* * *

Chapter 13: When the Stars Grow Old

_Migrant Fleet, January 3, 3871_

"Tali'Zorah vas Neema speaking, who is it?" The Quarian said reflexively before "Oh, hello James, is there anything you want?"

"Tali, I'm picking up odd signatures from the Fleet, my stealth corvettes have pinpointed it to the ship you told me your father worked on, the Alarei." James said urgently "Something's about to go terribly wrong on that ship… I'm sensing the beginning of a Network connection… might be Geth."

"What? Geth?" Tali asked, askance behind her enviro-suit mask, which she wore under her armour simply for nostalgia and an extra layer of security. "There aren't any active Geth in the Fleet…"

"Tali, I'm Cybran, I can sense the construction of synthetic or semi-synthetic consciousness networks, though this is much deeper than that so I suspect it's a network consciousness." James explained patiently "Something's going on aboard that ship, I've transported a full set of emergency stasis units to your inventory, go and distribute the things to the crew of that ship, quickly, before something happens!"

"Alright, James, I'll do as you say… though I need to leave for a mission tomorrow so I'll have to go right about now…" She started moving toward the shuttle docks of the Neema.

"A mission? Where to? Should I send a stealth corvette to help you? I'll give you full operational command and control of it, just so that you'll have some fire support if you run into anything really tough."

"Like what? Haestrom is an abandoned Quarian colony with an aging sun, What could I run into? A Geth Colossus? Don't worry, James, I can handle myself."

"Don't tempt fate, Tali, and be careful, if it's an abandoned Quarian colony, it'll be in Geth Space, and there's always danger there."

* * *

_CSC Normandy, January 5, 3871_

Thankfully, the relatively new crew members i.e. Jedore, Grunt and Samara were all quick learners and had more or less gotten the hang of using QP Packs and cloaking within the past days. Samara had also gotten used to Coalition weapons.

"Shepard, Doctor Brackman has forwarded a new dossier to your inbox." Kelly prompted while looking over a set of psych profiles she was preparing for the team. Shepard was walking by when she said this, and nodded toward her, noting the "Purpose-driven zealot" written under Samara's profile just before she erased it and began to ponder a better way to put it.

"I'll get on it, hanging in space doing nothing other than training new squad members in Coalition tech is getting boring." Shepard opened up the dossier with his armour's holoconsole, more specifically, the chest holo-console. "Tali… set course for Haestrom, Joker, NOW!"

* * *

_Haestrom, January 5, 3871_

"They say the sun's tough here… this is nothing." Shepard grumbled as he dove behind cover, avoiding a volley of Disruptor rockets from several Rocket Troopers. Geth technology seemed to have improved quite a bit since they came into contact with the Collectors and Reapers, but they were still very fragile compared to Coalition Marines. "Coalition Shields and Fields can take over ten times this heat and remain unaffected… Miranda, throw and kill the Geth Destroyer! Jack, Shockwave on those Rocket Troopers! Jedore, counter-snipe, Grunt, make sure none of them get close." He helped out with his Gauss LMG, standing blatantly in the sun just like his team members, their over-shields only pulsing normally, shimmering slightly as they always did, and showing no signs whatsoever of wearing down. The Geth Destroyer's shields overloaded from fire and solar radiation before it could scamper back into cover, and riddling it with bullet holes ended its existence for good. Grunt was having a field day with blasting Geth Troopers to scrap metal, and Jack had blasted the Rocket Troopers out of cover before slugging them to bits with her own shotgun. Jedore was dealing comfortably with the Geth Sniper fire raining down from above, silencing one Geth per LBR Sniper Mode shot. She didn't even have to use overcharge, since Geth Snipers were built small and weak to reduce their thermal and EM signatures… measures completely useless against Coalition Marine Armour sensors.

Shepard saw some red contacts trying to flank them on the HUD from behind and yanked the pin of an Electron Grenade before flicking open the covered trigger mechanism (once secured by the pin) and depressing the button inside, then tossing it over his shoulder as if it was a piece of garbage. The unfortunate Geth Troopers coming down the stairs quickly discovered that littering can be very much lethal as the grenade exploded and tore them to scrap, sparking, somewhat ionized scrap.

Haestrom, already a bit of a scrap yard, was rapidly becoming even more of a scrap yard as the squad charged up the ramp and mowed down the Geth still alive up there, bellowing war cries as they mashed the remains of their enemies into the ground, looting the area for all goods before moving on "I'm picking up friendly-neutrals and hostiles up ahead, both sides are trading fire, it's probably the Quarians! Joker, send down the Restorer, Garrus, this would be a good time to get your Shield Disruptor out, I'm picking up a Dropship!" Shepard ordered as they ran toward and around the corner, heavy weapons at the ready, to discover a group of Quarians behind cover, trading fire with the Geth while a Dropship circled the battlefield, bombarding the Quarians with its cannons whenever possible. It seemed to spot them and collapsed a pillar to block their progress. Shepard scooped up a data pad with credits from the ground before depositing it in his armour and letting it hack while giving orders "Up and over boys, we'll show the Geth we aren't to be messed with." The Restorer, already circling far overhead, was already dropping through the clouds and opening fire on the Geth Dropship with its arsenal when Garrus started blasting away with his Shield Disruptor. "Everyone, cover Garrus!" Shepard shouted as he destroyed a Geth Prime in a couple hits with his Nanodart Launcher, Particle Rifle fire from Geth Snipers deflecting off his and his companions' over-shields. The Snipers in question were all down seconds later from expert work by Jedore, since Garrus wasn't in the fight, having been dropped off after they got started and just having met up with the five-person group. Grunt was making sure no one got close, as was Jack, and Miranda was doing mid-range work alongside Shepard.

"The Dropship's shields are down!" Shepard yelled "Take cover!" The Dropship began to fall apart, core going critical a moment later and flying over a building on the Geth end of the battlefield and exploding some distance away upon hitting the ground "Save the Quarians!" There weren't that many left, though the survivors sure got a breather from the crew distracting the Geth.

"These enemies are weak!" Grunt roared as he smashed another Geth Trooper's head in.

"You mean our tech is too good." Garrus retorted, taking down another Geth Rocket Trooper at distance.

* * *

The Quarians had after some persuasion and a direct communiqué from Tali been ushered into the Restorer Gunship and safety, Garrus following them onboard to help baby-sit them while the rest of the squad moved on.

They'd bypassed a door into a room with a lot of dead Quarians and Geth. It felt closer to home than if it was, say, Asari, since the blood of Quarians, like that of humans, was a bright red when oxygenated, but that wasn't as important as Tali opening the door ahead for them, eliminating the need for excessive Nanodart use, and telling them how to get to her. She'd also asked them to save as many Marines as possible, sadly, even for Coalition medical technology, brain-dead AND body-dead Quarians could not be re-animated.

The next destination was the Observatory at the other end of the abandoned colony, where Tali was, so Shepard plotted the necessary waypoints before heading out past the now open door to a shaded area, but it was obvious that they could easily be flanked. That would be a problem… except they had enough people. Putting Jack and Grunt on flank guard duty solved the problem easily with their Shotguns and Chainguns, while Miranda, Jedore and Shepard took the center. "Shit, Recon Drones! Miranda, Jedore, Flak them down!" For Miranda, that meant her dual SMGs, Shepard and Jedore swapped out for Temporal Fizz Launchers that effectively tore down the Drones with splash damage, though one Fizz didn't cut it with the Drones' shields, the splash damage and the number of shots they fired off annihilated them in mass numbers while Miranda picked off the stragglers. Jack and Grunt were still pouring out high-velocity penetrators into the advancing Geth, whose plasma, particle and rocket weapons could not do much before they were torn down by the two over-powered machine guns. After all, it was well known that if your protection wasn't effective enough, advancing into a field of automatic weapons fire was suicide. Sure, each Geth could absorb at least two hits, but… that still meant a max kill rate of up to five Geth per second, EACH.

"The Geth seem to be getting tougher, Shepard." Jack reported when she noticed the Troopers starting to be able to take three hits before dying. The Rocket Troopers and Hunters (whose active camouflage was useless) were similarly toughening up, actually getting closer to the squad while they marched forward toward the Geth.

"Damn, that means there's a Geth Prime or multiple… there's one, light him up Jedore!" he designated the target with his HUD's eye tracker.

"Going now, Shepard!" Jedore extended her LBR to Sniper Mode for the Overcharge shot that would be required for the kill, levelling it over the cover they'd ducked behind before firing, the brilliant red beam, far more intense than a typical LBR shot, smashing into the Geth Prime's shields, rupturing the first, second, third and fourth layers before dissipating against the fifth and last layer, sending the platform staggering before another pair of standard sniper bolts from the LBR finished it off. Jack and Grunt abruptly found the job of taking down the Geth much, much easier.

They made it to the end of the path without much trouble, though Shepard was thankful he wasn't using a three-person squad, instead using a five-person one for greater force projection and multi-purposing when needed. They hacked a wall safe before raising a set of shutters the line to the next waypoint went through.

A vast horde of Geth awaited them, so they snuck down the stairs to where a red-armoured Quarian was crouched behind a half-demolished wall buttress, holding a K-12 Missile Launcher. "Hey, Tali said I should expect you… name's Kal'Reegar, Tali's second-in-command." His tone went from friendly to dry as he gestured at the other side of his cover "As you may have noticed, from here to the Observatory Tali's in, there's a while shitload of Geth. Also, there's a Geth Colossus hanging around… somewhere. It has a self-repair routine, so I simply haven't been able to wear it down, damned shields recharge too fast and I'm running out of cover to use."

"Hmm, can you give me a run-through of the area layout?"

"Left side has plenty of cover from the Colossus, but…" Kal gestured at the glittering of Geth plating in the light on the left side "There's a horde of smaller Geth. Right side has a sniper's position and a lot of cover but it's exposed to the sun, not good for shield life expectancy. The middle's got cover and not many smaller Geth, but the Colossus has a firing solution on you the whole time…" The ground shook as the Colossus shifted its 25-meter-tall frame slightly as if to emphasize Kal's point.

"Hmm, well, we're taking the left then, after all, gotta kill the underlings before you can completely encircle the overlord with impunity…" That applied to anti-Zerg warfare too in most cases, but that was beside the point and the Koprulu Sector was still a secret from the rest of the Galaxy, except Raynor's Raiders who'd been making a killing selling gear in Citadel Space. "After that, we'll see if I get annoyed with the damned thing."

"Want me to give you some cover fire?" Kal asked, adjusting his grip on the K-12.

"No, that weapon isn't nearly powerful enough, Kal, stay down… you're hurt."

"The suit sections have sealed and I'm swimming in a sea of antibiotics, besides, I'm not gonna die of an infection in the middle of a fight, that's just insulting!" Kal said, looking down at the wound to his leg disdainfully.

"I'm serious, Kal, you can do the Quarian people more good alive than dead, and you don't have the protection we do, Colossus guns are powerful, but we can at least take a hit." True, OS, Shields, and fields would be effectively drained, but that was beside the point, if that thing hit Kal he'd be vaporized instantaneously… "Stay here, soldier, that's an order, we can handle this."

"I… alright, understood, sir." Kal nodded.

Shepard opened up his chest holoconsole (the wrist ones were more awkward since only one hand could manipulate it at a time) "Good, now, I'm going to give you some medi-gel and repair your suit, the wound should be as good as new soon, and with the amount of immune-boosters and antiseptic in medi-gel hopefully you won't even get an infection." He finished the medi-gel administration and repairs, then stood up.

"Thank you, Shepard, good luck."

The man nodded to the Quarian "You too, Kal, stay alive." Then he looked to his squad "Everyone, ready QP Packs, destination, the first set of crates on the left walkway!" It was an elevated walkway that had railing on either side. There was also lots of cover, in essence, it was a shooting gallery.

Colossus fire on their position provided an irritation but wasn't lethal, since there was so much cover to intercept the plasma pulse before it could reach them, blasting Geth at close range with Gauss LMG (Shepard), Dual SMG (Miranda), Shotguns (everyone else) and biotics for Miranda and Jack. Jedore, Grunt and Shepard had to make do with melee strikes to the Geth, usually a punch of their weapon into the flashlight on the head before firing. However, it was Jack, Miranda and Grunt that did the vast majority of the actual work, Shepard and Jedore were often busy sniping Geth along the center and right paths, since it was obvious they'd have to clear out the whole area before taking out the Colossus, or at least before getting to Tali.

The end problem, though, was that the Colossus would require at least a hundred and fifty Nanodarts to kill the mechanical beast. Hence, Commander Shepard decided to be lazy. "Joker, get the Restorer down here and nail that Colossus to the ground!"

Within seven volleys from the Quad Light Laser on full power, the Colossus was a heap of smouldering scrap, and the team headed up to the door, which opened to reveal Tali in her Aeon Medium Armour. "Shepard, it's good to see you again, but where… oh, you called an airstrike on the Colossus, didn't you?" She said, looking past his shoulder at the flaming wreckage.

"What were you and the Migrant Fleet Marines doing here? James sent me a worried message after Doctor Brackman sent us your dossier, said you refused his offer of a Stealth Corvette, assigned to your command, to provide fire support."

"We were here to observe Haestrom's sun, it's aging and throwing off unusual energy readings, the Admiralty Board wanted data, so they sent us on this mission… Kal! You alright?"

"Yes, ma'am, Commander Shepard here fixed up my wound and suit, I'll live." The Marine walked in, saluting.

Tali saluted back before turning toward Shepard "Did anyone else make it?"

"We evacuated a crew of Marines with the Restorer, but the scientists were all dead when we found them."

"Well, good to hear we weren't the only two Quarians to make it off this rock."

"How have you been over the past two years, Tali?"

"I've been alright, Shepard, been heading out on missions with my marines regularly…"

"That's good to hear, Tali… I… uh, don't want to seem rude or anything, but now that this mission of yours is finished, would you mind joining my crew?"

Tali was wringing her hands again, her nervous habit, when Kal stepped up "Ma'am, I can take the data and the other Marines back to the fleet, I have a feeling that if what you said was true, and Shepard really was brought back from the dead, he could use help on his mission, and it'll probably be more important than whatever the Admiralty Board sent us here for. Go on, I'll handle the mission report and the Admirals." She nodded gratefully to her second-in-command before they trekked over to the Restorer hovering calmly in the clearing in which the Colossus had once stood.

* * *

Jacob, Kelly, Garrus, and Chakwas were waiting in the debrief room for their newest crewmember. The latter two rubbed their eyes when Tali walked in, sure, she still had three-digit hands and feet, but her walk was more confident, she was even curvier than two years ago, her bust had filled out significantly, and her decorative cloth patterns had changed.

"Thank you for the timely rescue, Shepard, but are you sure we should be working for Doctor Brackman specifically? James said he can be rather… eccentric."

John grinned "Don't worry, he may be eccentric but over a thousand years of life has given him wisdom few non-Asari can match. Besides, he doesn't control the Cybran Nation, more of a respected figurehead than anything, but he is a symbol of our determination to survive, and his vote carries the same weight as anyone else who's over a thousand."

"Wait… I thought you said life expectancy for humans was only around four, five hundred years?"

"That's more like the ETA until the next war, though there is also the fact that, as for Asari, statistical probability for accidents catches up to you. Cybran vote weight plateaus only beyond a thousand years of age, Tali."

She shrugged "Well, I guess I'll be down in Engineering then if you want to talk…"

Shepard nodded "Alright Tali, have fun."

"Oh, by the way, introduce yourself to EDI while you're at it." Jacob called at her back. Tali froze in place and turned around slowly, so slowly that she didn't see him receive a boot (by way of Kelly) to the shin.

"EDI…" She squinted at the glowing blue globe, which bobbed in greeting "you have an AI on the ship?"

"Uh… yeah, but don't worry, she's limited to non-critical systems, we learned after the QAI incident."

Tali scratched the back of her decorative cloth on her helmet "Well… I guess that's alright then… after all, your mind is twined with an AI and it hasn't tried to kill you or anything. I'll see you around, Shepard."

"Alright, let's fix up your crew's shuttle… or lathe you a new one. We'll make sure they get to the Migrant Fleet, or rather, James will." John and Tali shared a look at that.

* * *

"Hello, Tali." Shepard was being tailed by Kelly, due to "the need for you to have a psych profile".

The Quarian turned around rather quickly, and then, as Kelly noted to herself, seemed almost disappointed when she saw who it was. "Oh, hello, Shepard. How have you been?"

"Alive, dead, then alive again… oh, sorry, it's been long enough for me to start doing resurrection jokes." Shepard added guiltily at Tali's flinch. "By the way, your father approved your transfer, sent me an e-mail too, here, I think you should read it."

_From: Admiralty Board, Migrant Fleet_

Commander Shepard,

Per Tali'Zorah vas Neema's request included with her data delivery from Haestrom, the Admiralty Board has approved her transfer to your command. She has been informed that additional duties to the Migrant Fleet may still be necessary on occasion, but has been given extended leeway to determine when her mission with you is considered complete.

This choice was hers, but your role as de facto captain during her Pilgrimage may have caused her to be more susceptible to your requests. The Admiralty Board trusts that you will treat your new crew member with the respect due an honoured member of the Fleet. Should any harm come to her due to negligence on your part, this board will take severe and appropriate action.

Admiral Rael'Zorah vas Alarei,

Migrant Fleet Admiralty Board

_P.S. MAKE SURE TALI'S NOT READING THIS AND THE FOLLOWING PARTS! Scroll down only after she's no longer in your vicinity!_

There was a huge space of blank in the message, which Shepard scrolled down through, ignoring the warning

_She's been talking about a Commander Shepard in her spare time, ALL her spare time, Give your twin brother fair warning, I am watching him… *evil eye*_

_PPS Do you have idea where Tali suddenly acquired a pile of Coalition Emergency Stasis Units? She insisted me and my whole crew put them in our suits just in case…_

Tali was rather obviously embarrassed from her body language by the way her father was talking, which Shepard remarked on "Asterisks around the 'evil eye'? Seriously?"

"Dad's usually formal, but when talking informally, especially in private, well…" Tali gestured to the still-open holoconsole Shepard's chest plate was putting up.

"I get it, Tali, anyways, how are you settling into the new Normandy?"

"It's even better than the old one, never seen so much power in one place… then again I haven't stood beside another set of hex-linked Quantum Reactors before…" She gestured out at the three huge spheres that each suspended two small, spiked spheres in "craters" on either side of the big spheres. No sane ACU or SCU pilot would ever build something like this in the field, the building would be too fragile and vulnerable for its output.

Then again, as a prime example of that design principle, the Paragon was very fragile for its price, but the absurdly huge output made up for it, unlike the reality about these reactors. However, the fact that they were inside a large starship made them viable for use. The old Normandy had only had triple reactors, two Quantum Reactors and one Ion Reactor to use their excess output of ionized particles for harnessing charge attractions for energy. Of course, that was excluding the mass effect FTL core (a power guzzler) and Warp Core (also a power guzzler hence not a reactor per se). Unlike the typical Destroyer, the new Normandy had also been fitted with a slipspace drive, usually only found on BCs and higher-class vessels, in the unlikely event that nothing else worked. Only one FTL system could be used at a time, however, since they did NOT interact favourably (the test ships, unmanned of course, had disintegrated).

"You know Commanders building these in the field only build one at a time with reinforced damage absorption? The output's too high, if one goes up, they all go up, but since the structural fields of the ship, even when they're down everywhere else, will still be up here, if they go up we'd be destroyed anyways, and if they shut down the auxiliary reactors around the ship can still slowly begin repairing it, unless they're destroyed while functioning in which case the ship…" He was silenced by Kelly covering his mouth with a hand.

"You're rambling again." The redhead said.

John scratched the back of his head sheepishly "Oh… sorry."

* * *

After going around the ship talking to crewmembers, Shepard came back to the crew deck, heading for Miranda and Jacob's (separate) quarters, which flanked the entrance to the bridge. This time, he decided to go talk to Jacob instead, and asking EDI for the man's location headed for the main Armoury instead, on the same deck as the cargo bays.

"Hello, Jacob."

"Hey Shepard." Jacob was disassembling and re-assembling his LBR-3 "What do you think of the new versions of the weapons?"

Shepard shrugged "Didn't even notice a difference, except enemies die even faster. Brief me on them if you don't mind, I've been too busy talking with squad members."

"Well, Shepard, the Laser weapons still use red light to reduce atmospheric dispersion effects, but in vacuum they switch to higher frequency light, usually from red to green to violet."

"That's a new and interesting feature." Shepard nodded "Anything else?"

"The Coalition has been doing research into contained, shaped, plasma weapons for infantry, since it would be useless on vehicles, scale's not large enough, and any infantry wouldn't be able to handle something larger than a bayonet, too much power drain. They're not ready to field-test it yet though, so that'll come later."

Shepard bobbed his head "Alright, anything else new onboard?"

Jacob shrugged "Not much, life's pretty boring when we're not on missions."

Shepard gestured toward the two chairs in the Armoury, so Jacob finished putting the weapon back together and walked over to sit down opposite Shepard, who leaned in conspiratorially "I wanted to ask you about your past, Jacob, especially regarding Miranda…"

Jacob had heard enough and held up a hand to stop Shepard "You don't need to ask my permission or anything, Shepard, if you're interested in her, go ahead…" He bowed his head and looked at his hands "She always deserved a better man than me."

_Okay, I was hoping you wouldn't be the self-depreciating type, but I guess I'll need to help you._ Shepard thought "Don't be like that, Jacob, don't just blame yourself, tell me about it and we'll figure out whose fault it is. At least you can take comfort in the fact that she hasn't gotten volatile enough to turn someone who betrayed her into sludge with biotics and put the woman's remains in a coffee cup to make a point, after dehydrating it with her biotics."

Jacob was gaping wide enough to drive an ACU through "Who did that?"

"Liara T'Soni, seems like after I died, some things… happened… to her." Shepard whispered, a faraway look in his eyes.

Jacob looked at the other man with a small smile "You loved her, didn't you?"

"Still do, I think I might have given Miranda the wrong idea when I tried to help her self-esteem, she went all like 'I wouldn't mind if you appreciated my body' on me, I had to go on the defence, and as you know…"

Jacob rolled his eyes when he finished gaping "…The best defence is a strong offense, right?"

"Yep, she said she wanted some time, so that's more time for me to figure out how to tell her I'm not interested in her…"

Jacob looked thoughtful "Huh… well I guess you moved too soon, then again that was the whole point of your plan. By the time I brought it up when I was dating her, she jumped me. Still, good tactic, managed to get her to back off."

"Yeah, thankfully, I mean, she's not unattractive by any standards, but… I'm still hoping my Liara's still under that cold, hard exterior somewhere…" Shepard trailed off

"As someone once said, when you've had it blue, nothing else will do." Jacob added, making Shepard glare at him.

"Why did you and Miranda break up? You seemed to be good for her, and she's a great woman from what I know… You're obviously still madly in love with her, from the way you head out whenever she's at any real risk… Why'd you two break up?" John turned the conversation around to Jacob now.

The black Marine looked at him for a long moment, lips pursed, before sighing "You've told me enough, Shepard, so I guess I owe it to you to tell you about just how Miranda broke up with me… after you tell me what you're planning to do about your mother and Benezia recalling you."

Shepard shrugged "Planning to put it off as long as I can, if they call again I guess I'll have to go, but I want to try to finish the mission before that… Come on, tell me about the break-up."

* * *

A/N: THE FOLLOWING IS NOT MIRANDA-BASHING! It merely shows how Jacob saw it, objectivity is not present here, not really.

* * *

FLASHBACK (JACOB'S SIDE OF THINGS)

_A Couple Months Ago…_

Jacob Taylor, Coalition Marine and SCU pilot, was nervous. Normally, this would be atypical of the confident, skilled and generally decent man, but then again what man wouldn't be knocking their knees together at the idea of proposing to his girlfriend?

He and Miranda had been in a relationship ever since shortly after their mission a couple years back to save the Council and much of the Citadel. The emotional aspect, at least from his perspective and what she displayed as her opinion, was excellent, while the physical aspect had the passion and need to it that made it incredible. It had been a couple years since they'd started the relationship, a bit over three years since they first met, shortly after he'd completed Marine and SCU Pilot training with flying colours and joined the Coalition Military. Over the course of their relationship he'd confided nearly everything about himself and he knew all sorts of things about her, be they big or little, and he felt that since their relationship had been at a sort of plateau for around a year already, it was time to take a step forward.

A couple weeks ago, while they were on Procyon, nearing the completion of Project, for a private meeting with Doctor Brackman, she'd left rather hurriedly, telling him she had somewhere to be at 21:30 and would take some time. He'd asked if it was a mission of some sort, but then she'd answered that it was personal and for him not to worry. After she left, muttering something ending with "Block D, 221…" to herself, he drew up the schematics for the ring he was planning for her and resumed working on it. These days, rings were not so much a sign of ability or wealth as a sign that you were willing to put time and effort into making the design before submitting it to one of the public nanolathes for creation. Nanolathe credits for custom projects were charged by the machines based on mass, complexity and materials employed.

A few days later, he'd finally gotten it lathed, the perfect ring for the woman he loved… That was one of the reasons they were taking a side mission on the Citadel right now, and incidentally enjoying Serrice Diners, the best Asari restaurant on the Presidium. They were talking lightly after their dinner, enjoying the scenery and, in his case, her company, when it happened.

"Miranda…" He started, biting his lip and turning the little box over nervously in his hands under the table, still not quite sure if he should do it here and now, at the same time she started saying "Jacob…" They both paused mid-sentence.

"You go first, Jacob." Miranda said, smiling at him.

Jacob shook his head slightly "My stuff can wait until we have time, Miri, what did you want to say?"

Miranda sighed and "Jacob… I'm not sure how I should say this… we need to talk." Jacob broke out into a thin sweat at the words everyone knew to be code for either "I want to break up with you" or "I'm pregnant", though the latter would not be so bad… He really, really would not mind a life and maybe eventually children with Miranda. But if it was the former… what had he done?

Miranda continued, not meeting his eyes "We need to stop this…" It was like something was ripping his heart out of his chest, such was his sudden inability to breathe "I can't do this, Jacob, I'm sorry." She looked up at him, her eyes watering slightly. Jacob's fork and the small velvet box clattered to his plate and the ground at nearly the same time, the former hiding the noise of the latter.

"Miri… what did I do wrong?" Jacob reached for her hand, but she drew it back and shook her head. "Please, tell me what I did wrong, so that I can fix it, please." He knew he was starting to sound desperate, but this was completely random, they had been doing fine right up until now. True, there was the minor fact that Miranda had asked for some time off in their sex life starting a couple weeks ago, but he had attributed that to her not feeling like it and hadn't pestered her about it… was it the fact that he had given her a little too much space? He didn't think that was wrong, was it? Aeon women hated being pressured and enjoyed dominance in society and relationships, didn't they?

Miranda closed her eyes and sighed "No, Jacob, you did nothing wrong, it's just… I can't handle this any more, Jacob, I'm sorry…"

Jacob Taylor could take a lot, such as that he was subject to during Marine and Commander Training, but randomly just getting dumped by your girlfriend of two years? The one you were about to propose to if you had spoken first? That, he needed to get away from, normally, he would have stayed out of the discipline soldiers possessed, but not now, he stood and walked away even before Miranda was quite finished talking, mind reeling hazily as he paid the bill and left the restaurant, heading back to their shared hotel room… even that thought, shared, hurt… to pack his things before going back to the ship, it wasn't _their_ ship, not any more, to him, it was _the_ ship.

FLASHBACK (JACOB'S PERSPECTIVE) ENDS

* * *

A/N: Miranda's perspective on the mess will eventually be revealed.

* * *

Jacob sighed and finished telling his story before looking across at the Commander again, only to find himself presented with a bottle apparently brought with Shepard from the Forward Port Observation Deck, where Kasumi had set up a bar and lair of sorts when she came aboard. Shepard had his own bottle of the red drink… whatever it was, and had popped the caps off both the small bottles (Kasumi had warned him not to drink too much, and given him "small" bottles, then shooed him on his way). Jacob took it wordlessly and took a swig as Shepard did, before wiping his mouth on his sleeve and taking another, more dignified drink. The men sat in silence for a while before Shepard started with "We're a pair of sorry son of a bitches, aren't we, Jacob?"

"Oh hell yeah…" The UEF man agreed "pining over women we both love but can't be with us for personal reasons…"

"Did you ever get your ring back?"

"No, I realized the morning after that I'd lost it, but the world was looking to be a pretty grey place for me, it wasn't important anyways, not after…"

"After you lost Miranda?" Shepard said, lying back and taking another long drink after he finished talking.

"Yeah… how did you handle seeing Liara change so much so easily? Garrus told me about what Liara used to be like when I asked him."

"I didn't handle it, I'm holding it in my brain's RAM and at bay for now, I'll have time to handle it someday, after the mission's over. For now, I just do my best not to think about it, 'cause it fucking hurts…" Shepard slurred the last part slightly, dragging it out. "The Asari idea of Eternity is different from ours, eh, Jacob?"

"Heh, well, I once told Miranda I'd be with her until" The black man put up air quotes "'as they say, the sun grows cold and the stars grow old', I realized while you were on Haestrom that stars are always growing old… that meant we should have broken up the moment I said it…" Jacob clinked his bottle to Shepard's bottle-salute (sticking out your bottle arm, holding the bottle upright, toward the fellow drinker) before chugging down some more. "Miracle we lasted as long as we did… I still don't know what went wrong specifically, but a couple days ago I realized I never really took time to delve into her past…never knew about Oriana until you called us down for the mission, for example." The Marine slumped on the armrest of his couch, brooding "I knew about whom she was, but I never took enough time to find out what made her that way." He sighed in defeat "She always deserved a better man than me." He looked down at the floor and his bottle.

"I always thought Liara deserved a better man than me too, and I'm in roughly the same predicament as you now… hopelessly in love with women who presents us with a glacial exterior… Maybe it's something with thinking they deserve better, maybe it makes them think they do deserve better… and dump us once they're done with us." Shepard was looking into the side of his own bottle intently, watching the liquid within move as the bottle moved. "I just realized… even though you always head out to help her, Miranda doesn't do the same for you… The rest of the squad saves your ass, well, whoever's closest saves your ass when it needs saving."

"Well, she's being tactically practical, me? I'm being an idiot, all I can say…" Jacob paused "I wanted to ask you, during that fight, why you didn't deploy emergency stasis units for Niket or that Asari Enyala blasted?"

"In Niket's case, it's a loose end tied up. I didn't want Miranda to do the tying but if it got tied up, I'm not about to shed tears over it. He helped the Order of the Illuminate, that makes him an enemy of the Coalition, and we know how Coalition doctrine deals with enemies, if possible, ensure they are never a threat again."

"Makes sense, I guess, but I had you marked down as a full Paragon…"

Shepard looked down at his bottle. "Never expected me to have a Renegade streak? For the record, there's a reason Doctors Chakwas and Mordin were busy in the med bay for a couple hours after the op."

"What? What were they busy over?"

"That spaceport official, you have to keep a closer eye on where my arm points, Jacob, I'm fast like that."

Jacob whistled "Damn, well that was pretty fast for you to fire off a stasis unit… she got back alright, no?"

"Yeah, we sent her back after we fixed her up and reminded her not to mess with Eclipse again, next time we wouldn't be there to put her shredded body back together, she just mutely nodded at us in shock after we gave her the holo files of what she looked like sprayed over the ground at the spaceport terminal, and what she looked like when she came in to the ship."

"Heh, that's to be expected…" The black man snorted, signalling the start of another long silence between the two "We're a pair of sorry son of a bitches, aren't we, Shepard?"

"Oh hell yeah…" The Cybran agreed, watching his facial circuitry patterns pulse in the side of his bottle.

* * *

A/N: Really short mission since they didn't need to go around that fallen pillar, and a Geth Colossus is just too powerful to fight on foot practically (what happens when you make it able to stack up against the Rhino in SupCom: ME without being a total roll-over) without Liara around to Propel it so hard it dies when it falls back to the ground.

THANK YOU ALL THOSE WHO REVIEWED! I'm very sorry however that I haven't finished the next chapter yet… I may be faster than the vast majority of authors here but I'm not THAT fast…


	14. Geth What?

A/N: So many assignments impossible!

Examples: Impossible for VI malfunction, impossible for _Coalition_ freighters to crash… etc.

THERE IS ACU WARFARE HERE! Enjoy.

* * *

Chapter 14: Geth What?

_CSC Normandy, January 6, 3871_

"Anyone got an appropriate quote for this?" Shepard said blandly, looking down at the huge storm system that covered a third of the planet below them.

"'Warning: Weather Control Activated'" Jacob said, earning raised eyebrows from Samara (for some reason, all Asari had eyebrow-like darkened patches of skin along their brow line, most likely as a mechanism for communication) for the random comment.

"I was about to say that…" Tali said slowly. "Anyways, Omni and Soothsayer are picking up Geth signatures in the area of the main energy signature, in the eye of the storm." She put her finger (Shepard wondered what Quarians used for rude gesturing considering they had three fingers, not five like Asari or Humans) on that area of the globe displayed before them, making a small circle and prompting the screen to zoom in closer and prepare a better-focused image, using the omni-spectral Soothsayer suite to pierce the dense cloud cover and reveal that which had been hidden by the dense fog, revealing a large structure that looked like a cross between a Weather Control from Red Alert 2 and a First Koprulu War Zerg Hive with the four tall spires "Okay, that looks a bit primitive compared to some of the stuff we use for terraforming, but it works." The Coalition had weather control technology, but Structural Field, Quantum Energy Generation and Nanolathing-related life support capabilities made it unnecessary, if you were stupid enough to go outside a city's shields during a hurricane or outside a building's structural field coverage (which includes walkways to other buildings) during, say, a flood or tsunami, you had better bring some of the aforementioned goods with you, or natural selection would deal with you.

"The Squad will touch down here." Shepard put his finger on a point some distance away from the Weather Control, as he'd labelled it, putting the vast majority of the Geth directly between them and it. "And we'll hack our way toward the device. True, we could use orbital bombardment to take it out in one, maybe two shots, from the Medium Oblivion Cannons, but Doctor Brackman wants us to check out what the Geth have gotten their claws on in weather control technology, and we need some field practice, Tali, Samara, Mordin, Garrus, you're coming with me."

* * *

"Geth, ahead, in the fog…" Shepard hissed into the comm. as he locked his LBR into Sniper Mode and poked the barrel around the corner "From the energy readings they're the new, upgraded types, Phasic tech in their pulse rifles, not nearly enough to be dangerous unless in numbers, which they are… counting seven Hunters and thirteen Troopers. Hunter active camouflage seems ineffective against our radar, visual or Omni sensors, so they might as well be Troopers with shotguns, plasma shotguns, don't let them get close, Garrus, we'll snipe them before they can see us, Mordin, deploy your Light Plasma Cannon here." He marked a spot o the ground with a commanding field of fire. "Samara, support Mordin," The Justicar, now in a blue and grey UEF Medium Armour, nodded acknowledgement, retracting the bipod her GLMG had deployed for bracing against the ground, so that she'd be more flexible with it "Tali, if they do get close, take them down with shotgun or…" He glanced at the Quarian and rolled his eyes at the flamethrower Tali was already hefting "that. Garrus, let's get hunting."

The first warning the Geth had of an incoming attack was two Geth Hunters and three Troopers toppling over with two LBR Overcharge shots lancing through the smog, punching through multiple Geth platforms each before continuing on into the smog. The Geth reacted, sending suppressive fire downrange toward the source of the lasers that were peppering their ranks, taking down another pair of Geth before they could even get their rifles up. A volley of blue-white plasma pulses, far larger than that used by their plasma shotguns, smashed in among the Geth, blasting them about, and another stream of glowing yellow munitions smashed into the remaining platforms. The Hunters' active camouflage seemed useless, as they were targeted first as opposed to being hidden.

More Geth entered the area, firing through the thick fog toward the source of the fire tearing them to scrap. They seemed to not be having any effect though as the source of the fire kept on coming closer, using rocks for cover and stepping on Geth parts along the way. The squad advanced steadily from one piece of cover to another, except Mordin who was more or less forced to stay out in the relative open to use his deployed heavy weapon, and tore into the oncoming Geth with wild abandon.

As they closed distance toward the Weather Control installation, the number of Geth grew and then tapered off, seemingly as if they'd run out of troops. The group kept moving, keeping an eye out for hostiles, which they began encountering as they moved uphill again after passing a boulder. The Geth were actually forcing them to rely on cover to shoot back and advance without risk, surprisingly, with overwhelming numbers, however, they were still not a problem, right up until a particularly vicious wave of two Destroyers supported by large numbers of Hunters came barrelling down the mountain when Tali was taking point. These were the new variants, equipped with a flamethrower as well as a Geth Plasma Shotgun. They had rounded Tali's cover before Garrus or Shepard could snipe them, having mistaken their crouched, lowered height for Geth Hunters approaching in the fog, not paying enough attention to their HUD targeting systems since they were too busy taking out a group of Troopers attempting to flank the squad. The resulting conflagration where Tali was made targeting at best difficult, so they kept an eye on Tali's readouts while shooting up the next approaching group of Geth.

Sure, the Geth might have gotten some major upgrades from the Reapers after their utter inadequacy two years ago, but… it wasn't enough, Tali's flamethrower burnt through the shield of the Destroyer on her left while her over-shield shrunk so it could protect her better. The machine was firing its shotgun and flamethrower futilely while its armour melted away, until critical systems burnt out and it collapsed before Tali's over-shield. She turned her attention to the second Destroyer and began to do the same thing, though its shields had not been weakened by an LBR hit as of yet, unlike the first. Her over-shields popped from a shotgun blast and fire peppered her personal shield from behind for a moment before it was silenced and she turned her full attention to the Geth before her, side-stepping another swing by the shotgun arm while slugging the Geth in the head with her own helmet, the armour's power backing it up and sending the Geth stumbling. Tali yanked the shotgun from her waist where she'd stuck it and blasted the Destroyer's head off, causing it to collapse to the ground limply in the sudden silence. She was ready to take on more oncoming Geth, but there weren't any more.

"Huh… that wasn't so difficult." Shepard remarked as they strolled up the hill to the Weather Control, then turned it off, waiting for the Normandy II to descend through the clouds and drop off the SCU to reclaim the device, scanning it in the process.

* * *

"Picking up a distress call right now isn't very convenient, EDI…" Shepard growled, the squad had just gotten back onto the ship and the AI had notified them of a distress call they'd picked up from a nearby non-Coalition human colony. "Jump in-system as soon as the SCU is done reclaiming the Weather Control and anchored again on the bottom."

"Understood, Shepard, charging jump capacitors, SCU completed reclamation, securing now… secured, capacitors charged, jumping… Sensors detect a ship in orbit over the colony, orbit is rapidly decaying and will likely impact the colony, registration codes match MSV Broken Arrow, volatile munitions cargo onboard, to be shipped to outlying non-Coalition colonies for protecting themselves against the Geth." EDI reported.

"Damn, the colonies are still not accepting direct Coalition military aid, are they?"

"No, Shepard, most colonies still refuse military aid, the ones that are left and can refuse, that is…" EDI trailed off. "Geth signatures detected onboard the Broken Arrow, a lot of them. We can grab the ship into a more stable orbit… then reactivate the engines so it can land and off-load its cargo safely" The 400-meter Destroyer had enough magnetic clamps and nanolathing capacity to grapple the other ship and drag it along, after all.

Shepard nodded "Do it, EDI."

The glowing blue sphere seemed almost irritated "Did you forget that I'm not in the navigation or piloting systems?"

"Oh," a brief pause and a blink "well, Joker, do it."

* * *

The Normandy had grappled and dragged the smaller ship into a more stable orbit, and Shepard, Garrus, Tali, Samara and Jedore were heading out, again. Tail hacked through the first door in seconds before she froze, then levelled her flamethrower, her weapon of choice for these tight quarters, and let loose, bathing the three Geth Troopers inside the room with fire and fury until their core systems melted. All three collapsed before they could get more than a couple shots from their Pulse Rifles off, taking only a sliver off Tali's over-shield, since Coalition shielding technology had been designed to take much, much larger amounts of plasma pulse-based power without a sweat.

They hacked the doors to the engine room and started reactivating the engine core, Tali and Shepard doing the work while the other three crew members mowed down the Geth turkey shoot style, since there were only Troopers and Rocket Troopers, against Coalition shields and weapons… it was a joke of a mission, though they did get into a contest on who could make the most spectacular kill…

"That's cheating!" Jedore exclaimed, after using her Temporal Fizz Launcher to slow a Geth down before kicking the head of one of its buddies hard enough to knock the hapless platform out with a flying Geth Head.

Garrus had just sent a Geth Rocket Trooper on a jerky and highly non-consensual lap around the room, arms and legs flying in all directions like an epileptic chicken while disassembling it bit by bit with his LBR just for fun, since the traffic was starting to wane now. "Come on, Jedore, if you're allowed to pull a Geth's Head Legion on us…" He pointed to the Geth skull she's painted on her armour's shoulder pauldron "I should be allowed to make a Geth imitate Shepard dancing."

"I resent that!" A certain Commander shouted, causing the three to chuckle.

"Jedore, that's not cheating, THIS is cheating." Samara grinned, or at least her helmet optics did, as she lifted the last Geth in the area and made it do the Robot with her biotics and then started overloading its systems one by one, causing its shell to explode almost Harbinger Collector style, while still dancing, finally, she let it down piece by piece, the parts that she let fall disintegrating into, well, parts, on the way down.

"I think Joker introduced her to Tom and Jerry…" Jedore hissed to Garrus, the way the Geth had shattered to the ground was too similar to that to be a coincidence.

Samara shook her head as they all noted there were no more hostiles in the area according to Omni Sensors "No, Jack did."

Garrus did a double-take from examining hid rifle for dust "JACK?"

An eyebrow of Samara's helmet optics arched "Yes, so?"

Garrus's mandibles were spread rather wide "Uh… nothing."

Samara shrugged "That's what I thought…"

Shepard announced once he'd finished fixing the console and activated the main console by boosting up onto the balcony in question "Alright, guys, done, and the ship is clear according to EDI, she'll take control and set it down at the colony's spaceport… wait, EDI, why couldn't you just put it down? It's not like the Normandy can't handle landing on planets…"

EDI's electronic voice seemed irked "If we tried to drop this Council tech ship off… well, you'd better be ready to pay for whatever damage a damaged ship falling onto the tarmac without landing gears functional will incur, since I can't do it that accurately, if only due to wind. I couldn't simply patch into its power grid since it's not Coalition tech, so we didn't have a choice."

The Marine grunted "Huh… alright then, thanks EDI… we're coming back onboard, talk later."

"Bye Shepard."

* * *

_From: Rafael Cologne, Governor of Fargone Colony, Jonus_

Normandy Crew,

We retrieved your identity from the docking data aboard the MSV Broken Arrow. We're led to believe that your crew is responsible for saving our colony from a catastrophic event.

Not only did you defeat the Geth and prevent the ship from crashing into the planet in a trajectory that would have destroyed the colony, but you also saved nearly 100 munitions crates that would have been lost in the ship's scuttling. Thanks to you, we are safe and can continue the Broken Arrow's work in arming the colonies on the fringe of Geth space.

On behalf of the residents of Fargone Colony, you have our eternal gratitude.

Kelly sighed as Shepard showed her the e-mail message "They really wouldn't have this problem if they'd just accepted that the Coalition was going to let past grievances come to rest and tolerate one another, if they'd accepted the Coalition's extremely generous offer of membership in any of the three major human factions and all the benefits that come with that…" Obviously, people too prejudiced to accept other human factions (and a few against the Seraphim) were NOT going to join the Seraphim Republic. The benefits included protection, a say in government, etc.

"Hmm…" Shepard suddenly realized he hadn't really talked to Kelly yet, despite having her tag along when talking to other crew members. "Back when you signed up for the mission, Kelly, what did you think of it?"

"Well, I was part of the crew to defeat another of the major threats to the Coalition's existence since the Seraphim War… I felt honoured, exhilarated, terrified, in some ways, but mostly confident, with you around leading us, we couldn't possibly fail."

"And now? What do you think now?"

Kelly shrugged "Effectively the same thing."

Shepard nodded, turning to face Kelly from the console they were using "Huh… well, you mentioned me, what about me makes you think we couldn't possibly fail?"

"I trust you implicitly, the moment I met you, I knew that I could close my eyes, fall back, and you'd be there to catch me."

_I wouldn't try that in, say, the shower, might crick your neck…_ Shepard thought, it wouldn't break anything, since human physiology had been greatly enhanced since the advent of the Quantum Age… "I might do more than catch you, Kelly." _Yeah, like push you back up._ His mind added snidely _Or, I could give you a set of armour and tell you to suit up and join the line._

Kelly's eyes widened and she blushed slightly "Now that's an enticing thought…" She snapped out of her thoughts "Anything else you'd like to talk about?"

Shepard almost shivered at Kelly's words, his brain screamed: _Curse my inability to talk to women! Change the topic, quick!_ "We all know Doctor Brackman has an eccentric personality, any concerns as an Aeon working directly for him?" Sure, his family, other than their father, was Cybran… wait, his father used to be an Order Templar before coming over to the Loyalist side… roughly the equivalent of a Justicar… _should go talk to Samara sometime about that…_

"Not at all, he may be a bit too direct when he tells people about the truth, such as his yelling at the Council, and hacking into their system so they couldn't stop him until they agreed to start prepping for the Reapers…" _Oh… so that was why the Council was so cooperative after I woke up after getting my neck fixed… I was wondering about that._ "But that's beside the point, he's got noble objectives. The Cybran Nation looks out for Coalition interests, advance Coalition technologies, save Coalition lives, those are noble goals. "

Shepard decided to test Kelly's attitude toward non-human races "So, you don't think Brackman might just want to help us dominate everyone else and put the Coalition on top?"

"The Cybran Nation, well, you'd know better than I do, being Cybran and all, but I believe just because the Doctor protects the Coalition's interests, doesn't mean he wants to steamroller everyone else even though we can, seeing as we haven't done so already." She rolled her eyes at that "My sister opened a dog shelter, but she loved cats too. I love the Coalition Races, I also love Asari, Quarians, Turians, Salarians, Hanar, that isn't in conflict with Brackman's ideals."

Shepard whistled "That's a very positive attitude, and a good understanding of what the Cybran Nation is more or less about…"

Kelly shrugged, her red hair swaying slightly "What can I say? I'm a people person."

"Well, that's good to hear, Kelly, I like chatting with my crew, I also like facing them over the ACU simulators… you are familiar with them right?"

Kelly snorted "I'm in the Coalition Fleet; we're all trained for basic ACU/SCU combat if necessary." Then she frowned "Are you looking for a match?"

"I guess so, we need to show Samara, Jedore, etc. how things work in the Coalition, Jedore doesn't seem to quite get it, even though her parents were ex-UEF… I remember reading stories of Colonel Zaeed Massani back in the day… he didn't seem to have told her just how horrific the Infinite War was…"

"Hmm… my duty shift ends…" she looked down at her console "right about now."

* * *

Pretty much all the not-on-duty personnel i.e. Jack, Jedore, Samara, Grunt, Garrus, Mordin, John Shepard, Kelly, i.e. a little under half the crew, were in the simulator area. Shepard stepped up to the podium "Guess what guys? We're doing a leisure activity, Garrus, Kelly, and I will run a brief tutorial for you, after which you can spectate on the replay of our three-way match to see how real combatants fight it out. Afterward, we can play a team match, Kelly and I on one team while the rest of you are on one team… how about it? Oh, and yes, we will be playing by classical faction settings, not the Coalition mixed scheme." The scheme had primary, secondary and occasionally tertiary units for Commanders to choose from, so it wasn't unusual for one commander to field mixed armies and navies from the get-go nowadays, though ACU and SCU pilots didn't have much to do, the Coalition still kept a large number of them just in case.

The crew agreed, mostly out of lack of anything better to do for the moment, settling into the simulator pods and engaging the tutorial while Shepard, Garrus and Kelly started a match on Saltrock Colony, after setting the scaling to 10 kilometres on a side, the standard for this scenario. It was the smallest six-player scenario available, and the only 3 or 6-player that would offer a good balance of land, sea and air combat. They chose starting locations at 120 degrees from one another, on the clockwise side of each of the three mountain peaks if the island, Shepard in the west, Garrus in the southeast and Kelly in the north-northeast. After adjusting the settings to no civilians, they were ready

"Gating in five, four, three, two, one." The computer intoned as the three watched their strategic interfaces, already having queued up structures to be built as soon as they gated in. The ACUs' fields and resource storage may have been upgraded greatly since the Seraphim War, but the resource generation… not so much.

Shepard and Kelly started with a T1 Land Factory each while Garrus started with a Power Generator and then a Land Factory. All three rushed to claim the hydrocarbon deposits near the vertices of the roughly triangular island with Engineers while planting down T1 Power Plants and some T1 Mass Extractors.

The first small Tier 1 armies from Kelly and Garrus clashed in the center of the island while Shepard was busy starting an air force, forgoing much land power for the moment; at least, he could tell there was a battle going on from the wreckage appearing there. The reason why wreckage could be seen on the strategic map zoomed in while unit identities cannot unless line of sight is established (or even units until Radar, Omni or sight coverage is present) was due to all units having active camouflage, and wreckage conspicuously NOT having the system. He noted the other two's factional choices and how Kelly seemed to be using run-and-gun tactics to overcome the inherent inferiority of Auroras to Strikers, having less than half the HP, as Structural Fields were referred to as, but longer range and greater hitting power. Sadly, the hover tanks were also slower, with the result that both sides were racking up approximately equal numbers of kills, until the tide turned with the entrance of more units from Kelly's side that Shepard picked up by Radar, along with sizeable divisions from both sides headed toward his own base.

Shepard didn't have much in the way of Mantises, having foregone Hunters entirely, but he did have some Sky Slammers, in times of need, the Nanodart Launcher on those could function as minimalist anti-ground weaponry. Then again, he also had a few Jester Gunships, and though Gunships were vulnerable to some ground unit fire, they would do. True, only AA units were truly effective at tracking and eliminating air units with their actuators, and most other units cannot hit bombers or fighters since they just fly too high for visual coverage to pierce their active camo until to late (the turret simply cannot elevate that far). He moved what few Medusas he did have into a staggered firing line with Mantises along the front, ready to meet Garrus's army on the southern beach, while ordering his Jesters to head north to fight Kelly's army.

Surprisingly Kelly had included some Thistle T1 Mobile AA units, but apparently she hadn't been counting on five Jesters swooping in and gunning those down as priority targets before laying into the rest of her army, which beat a hurried retreat back to her base, where the Jesters were met by Ascendants. _Shit, she's done teching to Tier 2 already?_ Shepard thought just before two of his own Land Factories reached Tier 2 and seeing as he had enough energy income he started work on a Tier 2 Power Generator, as well as sending an engineer to start a Sea Factory, which he queued a fleet of ten Silver-class subs at before turning his attention back to the land units. He grabbed his newly-produced Rhino group, with a few of the more durable Wagners to soak up some damage and Bangers to provide AA coverage and Deceivers to keep out of detection by Radar, as anyone having Omni right now was extremely unlikely. A set of Viper Mobile Missile Launchers filled in the artillery role while they moved east to fend off any strike forces by Garrus (which wasn't coming for some reason).

Shepard directed his ACU to help set up a defensive line of Cerberus T2 Point Defences along the middle of the western side of the island, to fight off advancing armies from Kelly, at least until she reached Tier 3 and started raining down Harbinger Mark VIs on him (A/N: Yes, there's been two marks of the Harbinger Heavy Armour since the Seraphim War). Teching his second Sea Factory toward Tier 2, he queued a Salem-class Destroyer while sending a force of Renegade gunships to ensure Kelly didn't completely overwhelm Garrus with combined land and sea power, targeting Ascendants first and then laying into the ground army while Prowler-class Interceptors mixed it up with Kelly's Conservators, giving Garrus a little breathing room.

Shepard had grabbed the southern beach's central Mass Deposits already with Tier 2 Mass Extractors, and was shelling Garrus's base with Vipers and a Gunther T2 Artillery Installation he'd set up to make sure he didn't recover completely from Kelly's punishment while he used his Salem to provide long-range artillery support fir his army, making it go onto land when he noted the sonar signatures incoming, signatures his Radar wasn't picking up, indicating they were submerged. Sure enough, his group of Silver T1 Attack Submarines were mown down by Kelly's Vespers and they moved south to destroy his naval base, only to be stopped cold by three Nanite Torpedo Arrays that sent them to the bottom of the sea. The Salem meanwhile was pounding Kelly's front line shield coverage until…

Two Harbinger Heavy Armour units and eight Obsidian Medium Armours appeared in the line and ran straight for the Salem, callously cutting down Rhinos that got in their way before focusing their fire on the Destroyer, which, though it managed to take out a few of the Obsidians and one Harbinger, collapsed to the ground under excessive damage. Kelly's army marched south toward Shepard, deciding he was the greater threat, trading fire with the forward resource base Shepard had established on that coast and blasting the Mass Extractors and ED3 Shield Generator Shepard had there, in addition to the Cerberus Point Defence guns and Mass Storages, to smoking ruins before the arrival of five Loyalist Siege Assault Bots signalled a battle of micromanagement and mutual annihilation. The last unit on Kelly's side, an Obsidian Medium Armour, sent a final Quantum Cannon shot at the Loyalist just before the rain of Grenade Launcher fire from the Loyalist's left arm reduced it to scrap, the Loyalist collapsing backward soon thereafter.

Since the days of the Seraphim War, the Electron Bolter of the Loyalist had been compacted and turned into a chin gun while the arm weapon was replaced with a Grenade Launcher for area damage against weak foes, much as the Mongoose T2 Assault Bot had but more powerful. The net result was a war machine that, while it could not stand up to the Titan in durability, could still overpower the other Bot for the same price with sheer firepower, and was actually cost-effective or at least not cost-ineffective against Heavy Armour units. However, if you wanted something that could deal with weaker foes better, the Titan was a better choice. It had more consistent firepower output, relatively, and better shields and regeneration compared to even the upgraded (optional) Loyalist. All in all, the bots were fairly well balanced, even considering the Loyalist's Tactical Missile Defence.

Since they were playing by no-upgrade rules though, battles were quick and destructive compare to what it would have been with all the upgrades. Shepard's newly built fleet of Sirens and Salems, escorted by a fleet of Barracuda-class T2 Sub Hunters, moved north up the coast to reclaim the area, exchanging fire with Serenity-class Heavy Mobile Artilleries on the coast and Vesper-class Sub Hunters on the sea…

While Kelly and Shepard were having their back-and-forth on land between massed Loyalists, bricks and Harbingers, both had been preparing for air war, having reached Tier 3. Kelly, as expected for an Aeon player, was prepping Shockers and Restorers whereas Shepard was mustering massed Geminis after seeing the number of air unit icons that had started to appear on the Radar display. Omni range had been cut drastically by being in-atmosphere but was still enough to reach Kelly's base and render the Veil-class stealth emitters useless. They had also been building up their naval assets, starting work on Omen-class Battleships (improved with boosted range since the Wars) and Galaxy-class Battlecruisers (down-classed due to inadequate hit points, build time, and cost) respectively, preparing for a naval showdown off the west coast of the island.

That was why Garrus managed to catch both of them off-guard, though he was still cooped up in his base, using a rotating system of Parafields he'd managed to keep the Gunther's shells at bay long enough to establish more adequate shielding coverage and tech up to Tech 3. He'd built, unnoticed by the other two combatants, two Fatboys and a support army for each, rolling out toward Shepard's base, blasting the resource base he had in the south to scrap before rolling over the scrap, reclaiming it, and continuing on toward Shepard's base.

Shepard was now sandwiched between two enemies, his central resource base ruined by Fatboy shells, so as a last-ditch measure he brought out what he'd been building in secret: a Soul Ripper Experimental Gunship that pounded away at the Fatboys' escorts while Gemini Fighters kept Garrus's Wasps from shooting it down. Revenant Strategic Bombers joined the fray and popped the shields of one Fatboy, reducing it to a giant obstacle moments later and starting their second bombing run on the second Fatboy, though that was cut short by a wing of Corona Air-Superiority fighters sweeping in from the north shooting many of them down before they could begin a second run.

The second Fatboy managed to pound the shields of Shepard's base down and blow up some of the defence line before it was turned to scrap by Soul Ripper fire. The Titans that had escorted it sped up noticeably, trying to charge under the remaining shields and wreak more havoc. Shepard's Bricks and Loyalists barely managed to hold them at bay while the Soul Ripper flew away to address a more critical problem in the form of ill omens that had just appeared to the north of Shepard's Naval base and were trading fire with his three Galaxy-class BCs, an exchange the Galaxies were slowly but surely losing, since a wave of Solace-class Torpedo Bombers had eliminated his Sirens and Salems early on in the battle before more of his Geminis swarmed them like angry bees and killed them.

The Soul Ripper tipped the scales in the drag-down, knock-out fight of capital ships and allowed his Galaxies, with newly-manufactured Barracudas for support, to move up and begin shelling Kelly's vast base while…

"STRATEGIC LAUNCH DETECTED."

…His Soul Ripper settled back down to ground for repairs and his Geminis went to the Air Staging Facilities he'd put up, those that needed it. He checked his SMDs and found them adequate, for now, but…

"STRATEGIC LAUNCH DETECTED" The computer called again.

Shepard's Revenants peeled off their attack on Garrus's base (having looped in from the north far across the sea and around Kelly's entire encampment) once he saw them crossing the trails of the first Strategic nuke and the second nuclear icon followed close on the heels of the first. Apparently, Kelly had been able to afford the cost of an Apocalypse-class Strategic Missile Launcher or a Silencer-class Strategic Missile Submarine, and was bombing Garrus's cornered base while she and Shepard were fighting for dominance of the central area.

Garrus had made a newbie mistake, having put up SMDs too late, the area Kelly was targeting only had one anti-nuke in the Nuke Eliminator, so the first nuke was shot down… And the second ended in a flash and mushroom cloud on Shepard's strategic display. However, Garrus didn't seem to be out of the game yet, since there was no "Garrus Vakarian has been defeated" announcement, but Shepard did wince seeing the two Summit-class battleships Garrus had been building and the Naval Factories that had housed them go to the bottom of the sea, along with what looked like the remains of a half-built Atlantis and a number of patrolling aircraft. Kelly followed up with a mass landing of Aluminar T2 Air Transports carrying Harbingers, 3 each (12 docking clamps divided by 4 was three), in over the sea. Shepard counted at least ten transports before turning his attention to his just-completed Monkeylords and Megalith and moving them toward Kelly's base, which had been vacated by her Restorer fleet, unless they were all sitting in the quantum storage of that Keefer-class carrier… better not risk it.

That was the reason Shepard sent a wing of thirty Cormorant-class Torpedo Bombers spearheaded by five Revenants in case there was heavy AA, to soak up damage, at the Keefer in question, which began aggressive evasive manoeuvres under Kelly's careful micromanagement, swerving about like a drunken whale and dodging Proton Bombs to the best of its ability (and their rather huge blast radius), though the Cormorants' missile-torpedoes weren't helping. Its escorts, Ascendants, Infinity-class cruisers, and even a few leftover Shard-class T1 Attack Boats, were going berserk trying to shoot the bombers down, but it wasn't working so well, and the Keefer could not launch its on-board aircraft until its course evened out somewhat, so it became a game of who could micromanage better.

Kelly won by the barest of fractions, actually needing to dodge a Revenant's wreck, the final thing to crash into the sea, to make the Keefer survive and begin spewing out, as Shepard had expected, a wing of Restorers. Thankfully for him, his Megalith came into range before all of the Restorers could get airborne, and with a single volley the Aircraft Carrier's armour (fields were completely gone already) failed, secondary explosions blossoming over the surface as the giant, rounded ship began to break up. The quantum storage annihilated all that was in it and dispersed it to the universe at large in the form of matter, hence the observation that hydrogen molecules sometimes appear out of nowhere in deep space. The thirty Restorer Gunships that DID get airborne though were exceedingly angry and swept south toward the offending Megalith, ignorant of the fact that two Monkeylords had already snuck by… right up until the Monkeylords opened up on Kelly's base's shields.

The ground began to shake as Kelly's Galactic Colossi, both of them, moved at the same time, sending seismic tremors out through the ground, much as the Monkeylords had but of much greater magnitude, the rocks in the simulation literally vibrating as the two titans walked toward their enemies, water sloshing off their structural fields. Shepard wisely retreated, since he had not been expecting this (they'd been built underwater, and the ASF and SAM screens Kelly had were just too good for him to get to the other side of her base). His own Geminis were taking horrific losses from the Restorers, but were cost-effective in doing so, since unlike other ASFs, they used missiles.

Garrus, while the two were slugging it out, had been patiently building up his own forces, and flooded the map with Broadsword Gunships and Wasp fighters even while the other two fought. Sadly, he wasn't counting on Shepard and Kelly calling off their units and targeting him instead, though the original set of large experimentals were all down and out, they still brought large armies and bomber fleets to the table, striking into his defence line of Ravagers and Triads with dozens of Strategic Bombers, mostly from Kelly, Shockers were highly effective at penetrating shields and killing single targets, and so they started going after his ACU while Galaxies, Omens, Megaliths and Tempests alike cut into his fleets.

Garrus was out of the game after his ACU took over a dozen hits from Shocker Strategic Bombers, going up in a nuclear mushroom cloud while the temporary allies turned on one another and began grinding each other to scrap as soon as Garrus's remaining units self-destructed.

CZARs were met by overwhelming swarms of Geminis while Strategic Bomber met Strategic Bomber, Restorer Gunship met Banger T2 Mobile Flak Artillery, Loyalists, Bricks, Trebuchet (Cybran T3 Mobile Artillery), Harbingers, Sprite Strikers and Serenities met in open battle all along the rapidly shifting front. In the water, Megaliths and Tempests exchanged fire while smaller ships fired and died all around them. The occasional Monkeylord or GC was enough to make the battle interesting. Kelly wasn't even going to try starting a Paragon, it was just going to invite a strategic bomber strike to take it, and half her base, out, so it was a war of attrition between two roughly evenly matched enemies with infinite resources.

Eventually though, someone had to win and someone had to lose, and though Kelly was good, she wasn't as good as Shepard, and a surprise strike on the eastern beach by three Monkeylords that had circumnavigated the whole island (resulting in Shepard being pushed off the central area by Kelly, only holding on to the southern half of the island) sealed the deal when they managed to get up the coast and destroy three of her precious SMDs, blazing through the shields protecting them before succumbing to Galactic Colossus, Tempest and CZAR fire.

"STRATEGIC LAUNCH DETECTED" The message popped up on Kelly's screen, then an "x" multiplier was appended, the number behind the x growing until it stopped at 7. She began to run her ACU toward the other side of her base, the west side, but she knew the cause was lost as her base's eastern half went up in a nuclear cloud.

She could only try to fight back as best she could, but her five missiles were all cut down by Shepard's SMDs and his forces were closing in on all sides, a seeming tide of red icons closing in toward her green icons. She gasped as her shields began to ripple, apparently Shepard had mustered enough energy and mass to produce a Scathis, which had begun shelling her base. Her screen went dark when three Soul Rippers tore through her ACU's health bar and the words "YOU HAVE BEEN DEFEATED" flashed blood-red in the darkness of the simulator. If this had been a real battle, she would be particles floating free on the wind, thankfully, it was not, as the simulator pod opened up again and she stepped out after turning her pilot's chair around, Garrus and Shepard doing the same in the pods to either side of her, stretching their limbs and looking to the rest of the players, who were watching their consoles with extreme interest.

"Who's up for another game? I'm voting for Frostmill Ruins!" Shepard called.

* * *

They walked into the mess hall together after the simulator matches, having defeated the other six players "When we spoke earlier, you were very open with me, I liked that." She smiled slightly, then frowned "But I hope I didn't come across as too flirty, I don't want to overstep my bounds." _Yep, Kelly girl, you know he's way out of your league, don't you?_ Her logical mind teased before she shushed it.

Shepard grinned at Kelly's sudden nervousness "You're very charming, Kelly." It was the truth, it was very cute the way she acted, made him want to pinch her cheeks or ruffle her hair or something along those lines.

"Thank you, feeling's mutual." She paused and blinked as if realizing she'd gone a bit over the line "Anyways, what can I do for you, Commander?"

"You have a moment to chat? While we're eating, that is."

"I always have time for you, Commander." The tone she said it in made it sound like there was a bit more than a subordinate-superior relationship there from her end, but John ignored it. "What else do you do besides the notifications about the crew and e-mails?"

"Well, besides being your yeoman, well, woman I guess, as my official job, my unofficial role is to observe the crew. Everyone knows how risky our mission is, many of us may not be coming back, that's a lot of pressure. I have a degree in psychology, I'm good at sensing when people are overtaxed. "

"We're lucky to have someone with your skills, Kelly." They ate in silence, both finishing their food at roughly the same time "What did you think of our recruits?"

"Well, Mordin's like a hamster on coffee, Garrus is the badass vigilante stereotype, Grunt's a bit unstable, my psych profile was for Okeer, get the feeling he doesn't care about anything, including who lives and dies…" She shrugged, leaning back in the chair.

John waved dismissively "Don't worry, I won't let him touch you."

Grunt, who had apparently just finished his very large meal and finished praising (shocking to the Chef involved) Gardner's skills, was walking by and apparently caught that, extending a finger and poking Kelly in the shoulder with a knuckle "Touch."

Shepard and Kelly both facepalmed at the Krogan's broad grin "Grunt, you know what I meant, right?" Shepard ground out.

The big Krogan shrugged "Meh, Joker said it was a good idea if you ever said not to touch something to find somewhere not dangerous and touch it anyways if it'll annoy the people involved but not cause permanent harm."

Kelly stared at him "Hmm… that's more words than I observed you using before."

Grunt… grunted "Joker's words, not mine." Then he walked out of the mess hall.

Kelly stopped following Grunt with her eyes and turned back to Shepard "Anyways, if there's to be any more touching, you had better be involved."

Uh… that was a bit creepy but whatever… Shepard's brain said while his eyes flicked to either side "Alright… anything else?"

"Hmm… well, there's nothing more absolute than the oath of an Asari Justicar, now that the Order of the Illuminate is defunct and the Order Templar disbanded" Technically, since Order Templar also had a religious aspect, they were more absolute, Justicars at least had some wiggle room i.e. Samara negotiating with the Eclipse lieutenant "you did well getting Samara on our side. She's so elegant and gorgeous, too bad her manner is just so… cold."

"I didn't recruit her for her looks, Kelly, we've got you." True, since rounded jaw lines were more his thing than the very angular one Samara had.

Kelly smiled warmly "Oh Shepard, I wish there were time to get to know you better…"

Shepard sincerely prayed it wasn't what it almost sounded like "My cabin door's always open… well, usually. It would give us more of a chance to talk in private, and play a match one-on-one, just you and me." She'd displayed quite some skill in the match against everyone else, so why not?

Kelly nodded "That sounds wonderful. I've been hoping for some private time with you, I'll come by sometime" her eyes flickered to the wall clock "oh, look at the time, should probably get back to my terminal before going to bed, it's another day coming up."

Shepard was left sitting there, thinking _I really, really hope she's referring to seeing how I do in a real match of Commanders, and not… well, I guess if Liara was telling me the truth about Asari liking their mates to be attractive to others as well, it wouldn't be that much of a problem… would it?_

* * *

A/N: I hope that appeases people's appetites for ACU warfare for now, I was going to write the eight-player match but I realized it would be too complicated for people to try to keep track of who's where and what faction and has which units out in the field. Three's already enough of a jumble.


	15. Assassin's Creed

A/N: Yeah, I know the chapter title is over-used, WAY over-used, but for Thane, what am I supposed to say? The Incredible Krios? The Green Assassin? Mean, Green and Unseen (Red Alert 2 Mirage Tank)?

To **Kudara**, thinking you want to ruffle Kelly's hair like you would a small child is NOT finding her attractive (running your fingers through it, on the other hand, would earn you a spot in Liara's coffee cup). Also, if you were a woman and every one of your girlfriends think your man is nice, attractive, etc. you'd be pretty happy about it, even if it's because you got him and they didn't.

THOSE UNFAMILIAR WITH THE MAPS USED SHOULD GO ON SUPREME COMMANDER WIKI (The original SupCom Wiki, not the SupCom 2 Wiki) and **SEARCH MAP NAMES** (i.e. Saltrock Colony, Frostmill Ruins, etc.) TO KNOW WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT DURING ACU BATTLES.

* * *

Chapter 15: Assassin's Creed

_Forward Starboard Observation, CSC Normandy, January 6, 3871_

Shepard had dropped by Samara's quarters shortly after the match in which he and Kelly had thoroughly trounced everyone else. She was sitting cross-legged on the floor before the great window (which would have huge armour slabs, currently open, slide over it when). He waited, after all, there was time, no new leads on, well, anything… and watched the small orb of biotic energy float calmly between Samara's hands, hovering there and rippling as she meditated, without even showing a biotic corona, a testament to her control "Shepard." She acknowledged without moving from her position, sensing his presence.

"How are you?" Shepard remained standing out of respect for the Justicar.

The Justicar's biotic ball faded and a brief biotic corona over her body showed some of the energy she had been manipulating before fading "I've spent much of the last 400 years on my own, it's nice to have a colleague to chat with." Shepard moved forward and squatted in front of the Justicar "I may be rusty at it, however. If you are patient, I would love to talk."

Shepard wanted to get to know his squad mates better, and considering the opinion most of the galaxy held of the Coalition as a whole and the Cybran Nation in particular, he needed to know this "What do you think of the Cybran Nation?"

Samara shrugged "I've heard rumours, but learned long ago to form my own impressions, there is too much room for interpretation in the opinions of others."

Shepard frowned "Why were you willing to work for the Cybran Nation when you didn't have first-hand knowledge?"

"I work for you, Shepard, our methods may be different, but our goals are not."

Shepard hummed in approval "I'd like to hear more about the criminal you were chasing on Nos Astra."

Samara looked down for a moment "I hope you will understand if I wish to avoid this topic. It is deeply tied to my code and beliefs." She paused for a moment before looking out at the stars once more "You might say it is personal."

Shepard nodded in respect, he would leave the topic alone then "How much do you know about our mission?"

"I know that I've sworn an oath to follow you, and that you seek to destroy the Collectors, that is enough for me." The Asari replied simply.

"You don't want to know why the Collectors need to be fought?"

Samara's right eye narrowed slightly "When you live by a code that compels you to harsh action, you learn the dangers of curiosity. If I must kill a man because he has done wrong, do I really need to know that he is a devoted father?"

Shepard shrugged "Hmm, guess you're right, well…" His computer beeped "I'll talk to you later, new dossier incoming."

* * *

_Ilium, January 7, 3871_

"I feel sorry for Liara." Shepard grumbled as the Restorer swooped down into Nos Astra again, apparently, Brackman couldn't just give them the last dossier earlier… then again, assassins usually have very tight windows of opportunity. Samara sent him a questioning look "If they try charging us docking fees for this drop-off, I'm going to hack into their system and give Liara back her money, because we're literally going to do a drop-off." They flew to the balcony that housed the trading floor, looming over the area and casting it in their shadow…

"Like a spectre of death, a dramatic entrance indeed, Shepard." Samara remarked as they jumped out the airlock, right after Tali, Jedore and Miranda made the jump. Jedore had originally commented that Grunt might be better for firepower, but came along anyways.

"Wrong." Shepard said as their Quantum Propulsion Packs dampened the impact with the ground so that it felt like jumping down from a desk as opposed to a hovering T3 AA Gunship that was hanging many meters above the trading floor "Spectres are one tier below the Restorer, though you got the faction and general colour scheme right."

Samara rolled her eyes as they walked toward Liara's office while the huge gunship left before the crowd could get over the shock and panic "Let us see who this Thane Krios is…"

* * *

"Shepard! It's good to see you again!" Liara gestured him to sit while glancing at his team and nodding in respect to Samara, who nodded back, sensing much strength in the young one, almost absurd strength… Liara looked back to Shepard "What can I do for you?"

"I'm looking for Thane Krios, he's supposed to be here on Ilium." Shepard noted that Liara still looked ashen, being greyer than blue, and her eyes still seemed tungsten-grey and dead, with the eyeliner and impact-like pattern of seemingly smudged lavender around them adding to the effect.

"The assassin, yes, he arrived here a few days ago. My sources tell me he may be targeting a corporate executive, Nassana Dantius. He contacted a woman named Seryna. She has an office in the cargo transfer levels. Perhaps she can tell you where Krios is."

Shepard smiled gratefully, smiling fondly, internally still very concerned for Liara's current well-being despite what she told him last time, she didn't look very healthy right now… "Thanks for the help, Liara, that's all I needed to know."

She smiled back "Of course, if there's anything else I can help you with, let me know."

"How's your own work going?"

"I'm still waiting" Liara's eyes narrowed and gleamed with a mad and dangerous intensity, so much so that Shepard actually sidled back nervously in his chair before he caught himself and leaned forward again "still hunting, the Shadow Broker can't hide forever." He was almost waiting for the mad cackling that he almost expected to follow a statement of that type and tone "Even with Nyxeris…" Her eyes flickered to her coffee cup, which, thankfully as far as Shepard was concerned, was filled with water this time "dead, it could take years before I track the Shadow Broker down, but someday he'll slip up, and I'll be there."

Shepard nodded furiously, getting up form his seat and putting his helmet back on "I'll talk to you later, Liara." None of his squad mates missed the slight shift of the helmet, which, though locked in position facing forward for now, signified a glance back as he stepped out of Liara's office

* * *

They walked up to Seryna's desk, Shepard starting with "Seryna?"

The Asari didn't look up from her console. "Who wants to know?"

"Name's Shepard, Liara T'Soni said you might have information on Thane Krios."

The blue-purple Asari stood at that and said to her purple companion "Tana, cover for me." The other Asari nodded and Seryna led them out to a balcony "Over here." She gestured them out with her "Yeah, I know who Thane Krios is, I might have passed him some information, but I didn't hire him, what do you want to know?"

"Maybe you could help me find him?"

"I can tell you, but you won't stop him, when he contacted me, I checked up on him, the man never gives up on a job. I ran security for Nassana Dantius, then I found out she was having people killed to cover up her dirty secrets. She fired me when I confronted her." Seryna shrugged "Her loss, I might have been good enough to stop Thane from taking her down."

"Why does that name sound familiar?"

Seryna shrugged "She was a representative on the Citadel a few years ago."

Shepard rubbed the back of his head "Right, she had me kill her sister, the slaver."

Seryna frowned "I thought that was just a rumour, well, you know what she's capable of, then. She has even more power here in Nos Astra, she uses it to keep her friends in check and her enemies dead."

"Hmm…" Shepard thought for a moment "If you worked there, you must have a good idea what his opposition will be."

"Eclipse mercs, high-tech killers, undisciplined, but very well-equipped, they don't much care who they kill, as long as they're paid for it. Thane has quite a reception waiting for him. I told him all I knew, he didn't seem worried."

"So where do I find Thane?"

"The Dantius Towers, Penthouse level of Tower One…" She pointed toward the tower in question. "There's a second tower, still under construction, if Thane is smart he'll go in from there."

Shepard eyed her for a moment "It doesn't sound like Nassana's just going to let me in…"

Seryna shook her head and rolled her eyes at the obvious "She's as smart as she is paranoid, no one's getting in or out of there without a fight. I can get you in, but you'll only get one shot, you'd better be ready."

"You know anything else about Thane?"

"Not much, he did say he's not doing the hit for money, no one hired him. I wanted to know who I was helping, and he said he's doing this job on his own, that he had to restore the balance of his life… I don't know, maybe he's crazy, if he takes down Nassana, I don't care why he does it."

"Huh… and you're just offering your help, no strings attached." Considering what she was saying, it was terribly unlikely.

"You're going to look for Thane, Nassana's mercs will try to stop you. At the least, you'll distract her guards, take a little fire, and give Thane a clear shot." She crossed her arms "I didn't hire him to kill Nassana, but I won't shed any tears when she gets what's coming to her."

"Let's go, then."

"Good, I'm tired of this crap… we'll go tonight, as soon as the shift workers clear out of Tower Two, which should be in about an hour, we leave in half an hour, meet me at the cab."

* * *

"And you wonder why I didn't bring Grunt…" Shepard grunted as Jedore again wedged herself in his lap, her silky blonde hair tickling his nose Miranda, Tali, and Samara having taken up the back seats completely. "Jedore, I think I'm gonna sneeze, can you, I don't know, move over?" The response was a glare from the woman, who'd been forced into this position by the other three grabbing the back seats first, Tali because she didn't like John in that way, Samara because she didn't like that sort of thing, and Miranda because of, well, her own reasons.

"I don't like getting poked any more than you do, and that thing." She pointed at the decorative gear stick "Is going to be a lot stiffer than you are, and if you dare sneeze on the back of my head I will put my helmet on and leave your nose to decide if it's preferable to meet my helmet or my hair."

"Uh, understood, ma'am, shutting up now." Shepard said nervously, looking over his shoulder at the three in the back as if looking for help. Samara and Tali's optics were grinning while Miranda's was in a deep frown.

"The towers are heavily guarded, and you'll find more resistance closer to the penthouse." Seryna said after an awkward silence "So, this assassin, you planning to stop him?"

"I'm just here to make sure he survives."

Seryna hummed before they made a turn "There they are, the Dantius Towers. You'll have to get up the second tower and cross the bridge to the penthouse. Her mercs will fight you every step, but it's your best chance."

True, they could have made ingress by way of Restorer through the bridge, but they had a higher chance of meeting the Assassin this way. "Why don't we save time and take the shuttle up?"

"She's got lots of rocket troopers waiting for you to try, you'd get maybe halfway up before you get shot down in this. Besides, the assassin won't go in that way, best to go in low."

"Any last minute tips about the towers?"

"The Eclipse mercs will be well-fortified by now, and they won't want to disappoint Nassana. There's no automated defences or traps, just focus on anything moving."

"Alright, let's do this…"

"Hold on." She swung them out of the traffic and set the cab down in front of the entrance to the Dantius Towers, Shepard looked up at one tall tower and a half-completed one right beside it. "Don't linger too long, they'll be here to greet you soon enough… good luck, Shepard." The squad was busy piling out of the cab and reassembling their armour (where applicable).

They looked past where the cab had been parked and grabbed weapons, before seeing Salarians running from and being gunned down by LOKI and FENRIS mechs.

"Hell, LZ's got civvies, they're firing on civvies!" Shepard shouted as he opened fire, blasting through the glass ahead with one GLMG shell while the rest wore down a LOKI's shields and tore through the mech, the other mechs went down with similar ease and Shepard ran fro a console to hack some credits before they moved to the right of where they'd started, finding a Salarian on the ground in front of a door

"Help…" the male groaned

"He's still alive!" Miranda exclaimed in surprise.

"I can't feel my legs… my chest is killing me…"

"Who did this to you and why?" Shepard began administering medi-gel to the wounded Salarian.

"We're just night workers! Nassana sent them after us… She sent the mechs to round us up, but we didn't hear… they just started shooting."

Shepard frowned, the bitch was going to get it… "They just attacked you?"

"Yes… we were too slow, it was horrible, everyone… screaming… the mercs said there was no time, Nassana wanted us out of the way… immediately. Damn, what are you giving me? That stuff… I feel… better, couldn't breathe before, can now…" The Salarian stood up shakily

"Take your time." Shepard said, still checking the Salarian's condition, true, he did have a collapsed lung, but the Medi-gel was fixing the hole in the lung up and at least ensuring it didn't become waterlogged before more help could arrive… in the form of him extending a suction pump to help get the air out and re-inflate the lung before filling the outside hole with medi-gel that quickly sealed the wound shut with TRA help.

"Find the other workers… help them." The Salarian said, hissing in pain and relief at being treated.

"I need to get up to the penthouse, any suggestions?"

The Salarian, still bowed over and breathing hard from the pain of medi-gel doing its work (when TRA and medi-gel therapy was combined, the effects were much better than either individually, and that was saying something, but it was slightly painful) "Take the service elevator to the upper floors… the bridge between the towers isn't finished, but if you're careful…" He made a hand gesture "watch out for the mercs, they're everywhere…"

"Why would Nassana kill her own workers?"

"To her, we're expendable, but… I didn't realize she was that ruthless." The whole point of the Symbiont Uprising, or as some Cybrans still called it the Evening War, was to fight against the idea of expendable people. "My friends… co-workers… slaughtered." The Salarian seemed weighed down by the emotions. "They were jumping off ledges to get away from the dogs…"

Shepard nodded to Tali, and she hacked the door easily "I'll do what I can."

"Thank you." The Salarian said before stumbling off.

The crew went through the door and down the rather exposed hallway, since there wasn't enough cover for leapfrog tactics, they went with mob tactics i.e. using each other's over-shields as protection. Happily, there weren't any mercs in the hall… but there were some beyond the end of the hall, according to sensors, on the path to Nassana. "Cloak, everyone, and get behind them, don't shoot until I say so." Shepard ordered and the squad activated their cloaking fields. Normally, the armours deployed Active Camouflage, but most forsake that for increased energy level and shield/field regeneration, in addition to intimidation value of the red, greed, blue or yellow optics. Here on Shepard's crew, other than Kasumi, it was cloak or nothing.

The U-shaped level of the tower was somewhat absurdly easy, with the squad simply strolling behind mercs and shooting them in the back of the head, making messy, splashing kills of the Asari and Salarians that comprised the bulk of Eclipse forces, along with a few humans they'd recruited from the non-Coalition colonies. After a while, i.e. one turn of the U-shaped corridor, the mercs caught on and began shooting wildly until a round sparked off someone's over-shield and the Eclipse troops figured out where the crew was and they deactivated cloaking, laying out fire while P-38 ammunition sparked off their shields, mixed Disruptor Ammo for the Engineers and Incendiary for the Troopers. It was for all practical intents and purposes a bloodbath, though the squad all lost over-shields, none lost shields before the last merc in the immediate vicinity fell and the squad took cover, beginning their advance with standard assault tactics.

After an annoyingly long time, they went up a ramp to the next level, Jedore looking around and whistling "Nassana has wheelchair accessibility, unexpected…"

"I highly doubt the ramps were intended for such uses." Shepard said dryly as they took up positions behind cover to deal with the incoming mercs his Omni was showing.

* * *

"Please, don't kill us! We'll go, we'll go!" The cowering workers pleaded as Shepard swept his GLMG around checking for hostiles, after all, there had been a LOT of hostiles around the building, hostiles who were generally splattered across or leaking out on the floor.

One of them actually looked up "Hey look… they're not Eclipse. You're here to help us, right?"

"It's one reason I'm here, come on out, it's safe enough."

One of them bowed "Thank you, we are in your debt."

"Maybe you can help me, I'm looking for someone, not a merc, he's on his own."

The Salarian, apparently the leader, scratched his eyelids before replying "Well, whoever sealed us in here… when he found us, I thought we were dead, but he just closed the door and locked us in."

"Locked you in?" Tali wondered "Sounds like our assassin was trying to keep them safe."

The one whose nametag read Daroth, the leader, looked surprised at the remark "Assassin?"

One of the others growled "Here for Nassana, I bet, she's got it coming. You treat people like this, it always comes back to bite you in the ass."

Shepard raised an eyebrow "Nassana's not exactly your favourite person?"

"She's… a hard woman to work for." Daroth said before his friends added. "That's an understatement, she works us long hours, no over time, and this is what you get in payment… she's unpleasant, to say the least."

"Why not just quit?"

Daroth looked down "We would if we could"

"What's stopping you?"

One of the other Salarians snorted "Our contract, we're stuck until the job is done, quitting for any reason can be hazardous to your health."

Daroth added "We hear that anyone who leaves early tends to disappear… probably just a rumour."

"But who wants to find out for sure?" The nametag identified the speaker as Shelum.

Shepard pressed for info "Did you see the one who locked you in? Do you know where he might've gone?"

Shelum shrugged "He's no Salarian, I can tell you that, but I've no idea where he went, sorry."

Daroth began speaking "If he's after Nassana, he'll be heading to the upper levels."

Shepard needed data on civilian presence in the field "How many workers were in the tower? Are there many more of you?"

Shelum responded with "Not alive, we were lucky."

Daroth nodded "Well, some got out before the dogs were sent in, so maybe a few are hiding somewhere."

Shepard tilted his head "Hmm… I need to get to Nassana's penthouse, what's the quickest way?"

Shelum gestured vaguely "Cargo elevator's the only way up right now."

Daroth added more "They're still working up top, watch your step, some of the walls aren't in, and it's a long way down."

Shepard nodded "I wouldn't stay here too long, it should be safe down on the lower levels, I've contacted Ilium Police to come help you." Well, he hadn't, but he would soon.

Daroth wiped his forehead "I was just thinking the same thing, let's go, everybody."

While the Salarians were walking away, Shelum stopped in front of Shepard "Thank you, and tell your assassin to aim for her head."

Shepard looked around the Salarians' room and hacked another console for credits, there seemed to be a lot of cash left around here… They moved to the elevator the workers had mentioned and Shepard picked up hostiles with Eclipse transponders coming down "Everyone, take up positions, Samara, toss a singularity through the elevator door as soon as it opens, everyone get a good field of fire into the elevator, no grenades or heavy weapons, but anything else is permissible."

* * *

Krogan hired by Eclipse were equipped with far better armour and weapons than typical, but the numbers still stacked up unfavourably, never mind the fact that Coalition gear tended to be rather overwhelming. So, the crew made their way into the elevator, passing the corpses. The elevator took its sweet time moving them up, meaning Shepard contacted Ilium Police in the meantime, but eventually it reached the top floor it could reach and the group disembarked. Shepard waved the team's weapons down when he saw an Eclipse trooper with his back to them, only levelling his Gauss LMG at the man.

"I haven't heard from teams Four or Five, don't worry, my team is always ready to go. I don't know where he is, not yet." There was a pause as the Trooper paced in front of a window. "Don't worry about it, we don't need any reinforcements, I'll take care of it, it's under control, I'll go down there myself…"

"Turn around… very slowly." Shepard said, his helmet optics on full brightness and narrowed for intimidation.

The Eclipse man froze, then did as he was told "Damn it…"

"Have you seen the assassin?"

"Why are you looking for him?" the merc backed up "you're not one of Nassana's mercs. Who are you?"

"Answer my questions and I'll let you go." Shepard stated simply, taking a step forward and backing the man up against the glass of the window.

"Look, pal, even if I knew where he was, I wouldn't tell you."

Shepard's GLMG pushed up against the merc's chest plate and he flicked the ammo setting to high explosive, the status lights going from cool blue to angry orange "Not the answer I was looking for."

"I've got nothing more to say to you." The merc crossed his arms "If you shoot me, my team's right through there, they'll be all over you." The man tried to seem impassive, rolling his head around, but Shepard knew it was bluff and leaned closer.

"Is a little information really worth dying over? Is Nassana?" The merc's back was up against the glass now, and the four women behind Shepard were palming their weapons with feral grins plastered on their helmet optics.

The man seemed to think for a moment, glancing down at the Light Machine gun pressed to his chest "No… I suppose not. OK, look, last I heard, the assassin was down on the mezzanine, but the teams on the bridge think they might've spotted him, nobody knows for sure."

Shepard grunted, then growled "Get out of here."

The merc raised his hands above his head "I'm going, my team is too… you alright with that?" The man asked meekly as he walked by, edging around the four women who were watching him like he was their prey.

"Go ahead, but any funny business and we'll see how well your body parts plaster the walls, right girls?" He was backed by a set of four low chuckles.

The merc was trembling as he glanced between the four women before pressing his hand to the side of his helmet "Guys, the job's off, we're getting out of here, back into the cargo elevator…" After all the mercs left, Shepard finally relaxed his posture and started acting normally, meaning…

Jedore was still saying "They owe you, anyone else would have just killed them." When Shepard was no longer there, instead, he was grabbing a data pad gleefully like a small child, his usual attitude when it came to looting.

"Hey, I found the genetic data for the Kirosa family!" the man said gleefully "could fetch some credits…"

The next room's few LOKI and FENRIS mechs were in effect a joke after the mercs left them there. "Bastards, couldn't even deactivate the mechs for us." Jedore growled as she shot one of the cyber cats down like a rabid dog.

"They're Nassana's, not Eclipse, at least, according to the lack of Eclipse logos." Tali shot back, kicking a LOKI onto the ground before blasting it in half viciously with her shotgun.

Miranda nodded as she pried the back plate off a dead LOKI, looking inside and seeing the Dantius Corporation's logo "Tali's right… these are Nassana's."

"Eclipse probably didn't want to risk their lives killing these things." Shepard bypassed a door on the left side of the room and came helmet-to-barrel with a pistol held in the hands of a terrified Salarian worker, reckoning by the lack of an Eclipse uniform. "Are you guys alright in here?"

"Get back! Get back… I'll shoot!" The frightened male yelped before Shepard rolled his eyes.

Tali growled, palming her shotgun "Don't do anything you'll regret." She'd learned some of the art of intimidation from the Shepard family.

"I don't want to hurt you, but I will. I said get back! I'll do it!" The Salarian, Telon by his nametag, had his eyes open particularly wide and was babbling in panic. "Please, don't make me do it."

Shepard could have wrenched the pistol away easily, but he didn't bother, even if he had shields, over-shields AND fields down, a shot right to the weakest part of his helmet from a gun like that wouldn't do much more than ping off the armour (whether it would scratch the paint was debatable), since by Coalition medical capabilities, the helmet and thus brain was the most heavily armoured, followed by the torso, then the rest. "Relax, I'm not the bad guy here, what's your name?" He added the last part for friendliness.

"I'm… I'm Telon, don't come any closer."

Shepard crossed his arms and shifted his stance "Telon, I'm Commander Shepard, I don't work with the mercs, and I don't want to hurt you, I'm here to help."

"I… alright, here." He handed the pistol over, but Shepard shook his hand and gestured toward Telon.

"Keep it, just in case."

The Salarian frowned (they'd learned what a Salarian frown looked like when they'd tried and epically failed at a prank on Mordin which may or may not have included a bucket of water, a broom, a ping-pong ball, string, pulleys, etc.) and held a hand to his forehead "I don't feel so…" He collapsed at Shepard's feet, and Shepard instinctively unholstered his Laser SMG just in case something was up.

"Telon!" another of the Salarians in the room cried, his nametag designated him as Chesith, and rushed to Telon before holding his hands up and looking up at Shepard "He's my brother, I just want to see if he's alright." He knelt next to Telon as Shepard nodded. "Are you the ones who… shot the merc?"

Shepard looked at the dead merc outside the room with a gunshot wound through the head "It wasn't me, your brother didn't do it?" He looked up at Chesith while he too knelt next to the fallen Salarian and started administering stims, saline/glucose solution and medi-gel from his First Aid systems as needed.

Chesith was checking his brother's pulse and didn't look up "No, Telon was standing here with me."

Shepard put his LSMG away "What happened, exactly?"

Chesith looked to the fallen merc "The merc found us and shouted at us to move, we panicked, and he shouted more. I thought he was going to kill us, then… his head just exploded." He looked down at his brother "Telon picked up the merc's sidearm, but we were too afraid to leave, then you showed up."

Jedore kicked the dead man over, checking the wound "Perfect headshot, no collateral, impressive."

Shepard focused on getting intel out of the Salarian while Telon was stabilizing under steady administration of glucose and saline to replenish what he'd lost in the fight or flight response against the merc and the crew "I'm looking for someone, probably the guy who killed this merc."

"Telon thought he saw someone following us, but he's been a bit… on edge." Chesith grinned sheepishly, or as much as a Salarian could anyhow. _Ah, so that's why it's taking my First Aid system so long… medium-duration, high stress…_ Shepard thought, just before the system beeped complete and indicated the patient should wake soon. "I haven't seen anyone but the mercs."

"How safe is that bridge out there?" He gestured toward the window, standing up.

Chesith shrugged, getting up as well "the bridge is stable, but the wind's your real problem. If it doesn't throw you off, the mercs will definitely try; there are a lot of them out there."

"Is the bridge the only way to the penthouse in the other tower?"

"From here? Yeah, it won't be easy, mercs are patrolling the other side. Whatever Nassana's hiding from must be pretty scary."

"There are still mercs up here; you should get to the lower levels. Ilium Police are waiting to help on the ground floor."

Chesith snorted "No need to convince me…" HE noticed his brother had woken up "Telon, come on, get up."

"Can we go home now?" It was kind of obvious who was the elder brother in actions if not actuality, since Telon sounded like a whiney child, _then again_, Shepard supposed, _any non-Coalition (and non-Krogan) civilian would after something like this…_ Shepard frowned _Wait, are there any such things as Krogan civilians?_

"Yeah, we're getting out of here." Chesith nodded, the Salarians walking out of the room toward the elevators "Thank you."

Shepard nodded back, watching the Salarians leave and turning back to the room before doing a double take and grabbing a PDA off the dead merc and hacking into it gleefully. "6000 credits, nice…" He grinned while a set of resounding facepalms from Tali, Miranda and Jedore rang out in the small room.

* * *

They had run up to the bridge, ignoring a communications console, since there was no point alerting enemies to your presence before they had to know, and of course gunned down Eclipse troops en route without care for their shields, with the net result that Shepard was still waiting for his over-shield to regenerate when he actually reached the bridgehead area, already needing to use his Personal Shield to absorb a few hits along the way.

A quick glance at his Omni readout showed a squad of mercs in the area, his HUD displaying the directions they were in, combined, the two provided an accurate image of who was where, so his tactic for clearing an entrenched enemy… "Tali, be ready to charge them with flamethrower on my mark. The rest of you cover her." Shepard grabbed two Electron Grenades off his bandolier and threw them overhand behind the cover of the mercs. The two explosions hadn't even died down (and the destroyed mechs and killed mercs hadn't stopped flying) when he shouted "Mark!"

The Quarian in Aeon Medium Armour vaulted over her cover and charged at the maximum speed her armour would allow, reaching the merc line in under a second and opening up with the Thermite and White Phosphorus-laced napalm. She sent the mercs flailing and screaming, their bodies, those not shattered by Shepard's Electron Grenades, twisting in pain as their Citadel Tech armour melted to their skin, burning through into their bodies, rupturing parts with steam pressure. Men, women, Asari and Salarians alike burned and died, the cover that had protected them also shielding them from help by their compatriots from the wrath of the green and white armour that moved among them like an angry goddess, right up until she stumbled back from a well-placed Throw by an Eclipse Vanguard followed by a Warp and Shockwave from the Eclipse Commando.

Shepard waved his crew forward as he charged "Fuck guys, cover Tali! Samara, nail the Vanguards with Lifts! Miranda, Throw on the Commando!"

The Eclipse stumbling after the biotic effects slammed into their barriers was all Tali needed, though the Vanguards still went flying up into the ceiling and the Commando still stumbled out of cover. That was enough, Tali brought her flamethrower to bear and bathed the Asari with fire and flames until they were nothing but charred husks. She kicked one, and the charcoaled corpse literally made a crunching noise.

Jedore let out a low whistle "Nice, Tali, great flamethrower technique… you forgot the customary quote though…"

Tali turned to regard the other woman, their green helmet optics of the identical (other than finger numbers) armours meeting before she nodded curtly "Right… I'll remember next time… where's Shepard?" She looked around, not seeing the Cybran Heavy Armour Shepard usually wore.

"Over here, I just got us twelve thousand credits!" Shepard waved from over at the end of the hallway, just before the exit onto the bridge. "Mercs really have to stop leaving these things around for us to hack… anyways, guys, let's wait here a bit… Shields and OS need recharging."

After the shields and over-shields had fully recharged, the crew moved out onto the narrow bridge between the Towers. "Look sharp girls, this is perfect for Sniper or Assault weapons." Shepard called before levelling his LBR at the first mech that came into sight, nailing the LOKI through the head in three bursts of the Battle Rifle in Assault Mode, since it had more stopping power but lower firing rate than a GLMG, and the LOKIs Raider Industries exported were actually quite tough. True, they would fall within a few pistol shots, but the pistols Coalition troops used were more pure stopping power anyways, though the firing rate was quite low compared to the assault weapons, which had been upgraded since the Saren-hunt.

Killing house was absurdly easy thanks to their overwhelming firepower, but the squad still had to watch out for incoming damage. Disruptor ammo wasn't nearly as ineffective as some others against their Over-shields and shields (though one AR firing at you was still a matter of watching the OS bar flicker around 99%, there were more than one), and it was annoying to have the OS alert beeping in your helmet. Samara and Miranda were sending mercs flying off the bridge in liberal numbers with their biotics whenever possible, and when it wasn't they poured Gauss, Laser and Phasic doom on the mercs. The incoming fire was by comparison rather paltry at best, even the grenades weren't doing much…

However, the rockets that started raining down on them when they were halfway across the bridge were doing some actual damage to the squad's over-shields, knocking Samara's OS out and forcing her to duck back behind cover for the moment. The Marine Armours' HUDs showed the threats, two rocket turrets of some sort, apparently of the same sort used in the Koprulu Sector for dealing with fighters, but with shields, they would be an irritation…

"Cover me! Keep the mercs back while I take down those turrets!" Shepard grabbed his Infantry Nanodart Launcher and took aim, then swore as he couldn't lock on yet due to the large number of closer targets, then he zoomed in the targeting box to get a better look and tapped the screen to indicate his target, the Launcher identifying and locking on in a fraction of a second. He depressed the trigger, a Nanodart leaping out of the launcher and flying off toward the target before another followed a second later, after the first detonated against the turret's shields and made it ripple, hard. The second Nanodart scorched the outside of the turret before it beeped and fired off another volley of missiles at him in response, forcing him to use QP Pack boosting to jump up and out of the way, being exposed to merc fire as he dodged the missiles at the last second, the clumsy warheads being too slow to turn away in time. The INL slipped from his fingers as he grabbed the still-unpacked LBR off his back and sprayed the mercs with fire while he was in mid-air limbo as if in slow motion. Then again, that was what happened when one used combat stims, as Shepard had just done.

On his way back down to the ground, he slung the LBR back across, well, his back and grabbed the INL that was falling with him out of the air, getting another target lock as he came back down. Shepard fired off a Nanodart to finish the first, damaged Missile Turret before shooting another pair at the second and flying out of the way again of another volley of missiles, noticing his over-shield pop out while he was in the air, firing off another Nanodart at the second, now damaged Missile Turret before grabbing his LBR again and firing downward toward the mercs while his team below gouged them with guns and biotics, mowing and hacking their way across the bridge.

* * *

They had cleared the bridge and reached the other end, only to be met by another crew of hostiles from the bridgehead, resulting in a shootout between the upper and lower levels, a shootout the lower level won through firepower and protection superiority. After hacking through another Eclipse Commando and a crew of Eclipse Vanguards, losing over-shields and some shield strength en route, they opened the door to the penthouse.

Nassana and her last few mercenaries, four Asari, two Salarians and one human, were waiting in the room they entered, Nassana looking out toward the night sky of Ilium when Shepard got through the door, seven weapons immediately being levelled at him. He looked unperturbed, actually taking off his helmet to wave hi when Nassana turned, her eyes widened in shock "Shepard? But… you're dead."

Shepard shrugged before putting his helmet back on "I got better."

Nassana rolled her eyes "And now you're here to kill me."

Shepard facepalmed "You really are paranoid, aren't you?"

Nassana waved him off "Don't patronize me, Shepard."

He snorted "Charming as ever…"

When she half-turned to him, she had a grim smile on her face "I'm sure you find this all very ironic, first you take care of my sister, and now you're here for me…" She looked out at the skyline again before turning around "Well, you made it this far, now what?"

Shepard rolled his dull red helmet optics "You really think I'm here to kill you?"

"Do you have another reason for destroying my tower? Decimating my security?" Said security was visibly nervous if the tremble in their C-14 Gauss Rifles and C-10 Canister Rifles were anything to go by.

Shepard didn't bother going for his guns "I'm just looking for someone."

"You expect me to believe that?" Nassana began pacing "Is it credits? Is that what you want? Just tell me your price, we can make this problem go away."

Shepard crossed his arms "Make me an offer…" He was hoping to bide time until Thane arrived.

"Double whatever you're getting… and I'll pay double again if you tell me who hired you." There was a noise, and Nassana turned to the nearest Asari to her "What?"

The Commando replied with "I heard something…"

"Damn it… check the other entrances!" Nassana sent the Commando away while the Vanguards closed formation a bit. She then pointed at Shepard "You, stay put."

Shepard watched a Drell who matched Thane Krios' description drop down from a ceiling vent without Nassana noticing, but his helmet optics still clearly picking up the noise and amplifying it, as well as marking the man a yellow neutral contact on HUD and "Radar" display "When I'm finished dealing with this nuisance" Thane snapped a Salarian merc's neck before taking down another with a punch to the neck, while Nassana was saying "you and I are going to…" She spun around with her mercs, trying to get a bead on Thane, but he was just too fast for them, quickly neutralizing all of them before grabbing Nassana and pushing a pistol into her gut "Who…" He fired, a large exit wound appearing in Nassana's back while she gasped and groaned in pain. If it was anyone else, Shepard would have probably fired off a stasis pod, but her… no.

Thane laid her down gently on her huge desk, crossing her arms over her as she gasped for breath, then exhaled for the last time in her no doubt long life. The green-scaled Drell clasped his hands together and began to apparently pray.

Samara nodded in approval of technique "Impressive, you certainly know how to make an entrance." She was ignored, Thane still apparently praying.

Shepard took a step forward, his weapons still holstered "I was hoping to talk to you…"

Thane blinked "I apologize, but prayers for the wicked must not be forsaken."

Shepard glanced down at Nassana's corpse "Do you really think she deserves it?"

Thane finished before looking up with his black Drell eyes, well, polarized eyelids, "Not for her, for me." He walked slowly around the table toward Shepard, saying "the measure of an individual can be difficult to discern by actions alone. Take you for instance, all this destruction… chaos." Thane came around to the front of the desk and turned his head to face Shepard "I was curious to see how far you'd go to find me, well, here I am."

Shepard raised an eyebrow "How did you know I was coming at all?"

"I didn't, not until you marched in the front door and started shooting." Thane took a couple steps forward, just past Shepard but not quite to the line of weapons presented by the four women on his current squad "Nassana had become paranoid, you saw the strength of her guard force. She believed one of her sisters would kill her… you were a valuable distraction."

Shepard glared at Thane's back "You used me so you could kill her?"

Thane merely tilted his head and turned back slightly to look sideways at Shepard "I needed a diversion, you needed to speak with me. You certainly fulfilled your end of the bargain, what would you like to discuss?"

Shepard nodded in approval as Thane moved back to look over the skyline, but from the near side of the desk instead of the far side, this man was pragmatic, realistic, good. "Someone's been abducting entire human colonies. We're going to stop them, we already know the culprits, a race called the Collectors."

Thane nodded "I've heard of them…" He turned his head and twisted his shoulders to look at Shepard "Attacking the Collectors would require passing through the Omega 4 Relay, no ship has ever returned from doing so."

Shepard shrugged "They told me it was impossible to get to Ilos too."

Thane nodded curtly in acknowledgement "A fair point, you've built a career on performing the impossible…" There was a pause and a sigh from the Drell, who looked at the night skyline again. "This was to be my last job, I am dying. Low survival odds do not concern me, the abduction of your colonists does."

"You're dying?" Shepard considered the list of Drell illnesses that could be contagious. "Are you contagious? How long do you have?"

"If you're interested, we can discuss it on your ship, the problem isn't contagious, and it won't affect my work."

That narrowed it down to a few choices, "Anything I can do?"

Thane turned his head slightly toward Shepard "Giving me this opportunity is enough… the universe is a dark place, I'm trying to make it brighter before I die. Many innocents dies today, I wasn't fast enough, and they suffered, I must atone for that." He reached out a four-fingered hand which Shepard grasped in a handshake "I will work for you, Shepard, no charge."

* * *

_Nos Astra Cargo Transfer, Ilium, January 7, 3871_

On the way out to the trade floor where they could rappel up to the Restorer (saving Liara some docking fees), they overheard a Salarian "Listen, I know the data is vital to the Kirosa family. Nassana Dantius didn't give us time to pack. I'm lucky I got out at all, her mercenaries were starting to shoot! If she lets us back in, I'll get it, I promise, if not, well, we'll just have to hope."

Shepard fished the data pad out of his pocket and looked at it for a moment before tapping the Salarian on the shoulder "Hey."

The Salarian was visibly irritated "What is it? I'm in the middle of an important call…"

"I overheard you talking, is this the data you're looking for?" He held out the data pad and raised an eyebrow.

"The Kirosa Generational Archive! You found it! Thank you!" The Salarian accepted it gratefully "My whole family has been worried, the data is irreplaceable! I didn't think I'd get it back from Nassana's corporate building."

Shepard crossed his arms "Why is this so important anyway?"

"It's a genetic history for the entire Kirosa family, it's used for high level reproductive negotiations. It would be like…" the Salarian scratched his head "A human pedigree, I suppose, without it, you are bargaining from a greatly weakened position. Losing this would have hurt my family for generations, maybe even destroyed it."

Shepard's eyebrows were fairly far up by now "If this data is so important, why didn't you have backups?"

The Salarian sighed "We did. A rival family introduced a computer virus, and our techs were sloppy. The virus destroyed all our data. I'd just spent a fortune getting the data recovered and reconstructed when Nassana went crazy." He gestured with his hand around his head for emphasis "We live in a world of infinite data redundancy, to lose something so important because of one crazy Asari…"

_Idiot, while recovering and reconstruction you should constantly spin off backup copies, HARD COPIES…_ Shepard thought, though he said "Well, there's your data, hope it helps your family."

The Salarian shook his head slowly, smiling broadly "You have no idea, human, I don't know who you are" He shrugged "or how you got it, but thank you, here…" He extended a credit chit, then added "for your trouble." Shepard nodded and accepted "Blessings be upon you, you've certainly blessed us."

"Thanks for the credits, good luck with your negotiations, Kirosa… am I correct in calling you Kirosa?" The Salarian nodded mutely. "Farewell." Shepard turned and walked off, his crew following behind him.

* * *

"Welcome to the Normandy II, Sere Krios." Jacob shook the man's hand with a smile "I'm Jacob Taylor, the Armoury Guy as they call me."

Thane nodded "Pleased to meet you, Mr. Taylor."

"Is there anything special you'd like with regards to quarters?" Jacob knew some Drell preferred more arid rooms than others, not to mention other species.

Thane shrugged "Preferably somewhere arid…"

"No problem, we'll adjust the settings for your quarters to simulate standard 'grassland' conditions on Rakhana." It would be a desert by Earth standards, but it would be perfect for a Drell.

* * *

_Jack's Quarters, CSC Normandy, January 8, 3871_

"Hey, Jack."

The convict shot back with "Hey yourself, pussy."

"I'm just trying to get to know people on my crew, Jack… so, what were you in Purgatory for?"

Jack thought for a moment "Can't hurt you to know, I guess, so… the usual, murder, theft, torture, destruction of property, 'war crimes', and vandalism."

Shepard raised an eyebrow "Vandalism?"

The vaguely-dressed woman shrugged "Crashed a Hanar space station into one of their favourite moons, the Hanar called it vandalism."

"Oh… that sounds almost like the UEF accusing the Cybrans of vandalism after the first Quantum Gate Network got destroyed by Black Sun firing… better than twenty Cybran and Aeon Core Worlds being glassed if you ask me." Shepard shrugged before continuing the conversation. "Why'd you do it?"

Jack paused for a moment before saying "The UN of Drell hired me for a good fee to do it in protest of the Hanar keeping the Drell on Kahje locked up in the dome cities, 'exploiting them instead of having it be a choice', their words, not mine."

Shepard nodded and growled "Makes sense, damned jellyfish couldn't have put them on a desert planet… the so called agreement between the two races is so obviously forced it's not even funny, the UN of Drell should get the people back, they're even offering to pay the Hanar all fees incurred in maintenance of the cities…" It was almost like how the Symbionts had been exploited by the UEF until Operation: Freedom (which his mother had been involved in) and the opening of the Quantum Rift shortly thereafter. "Too bad the damned tensions mounting between the Council races and the Coalition made the major factions pressure the UND into giving up the claim for now…"

Jack agreed, grinning viciously "Yeah, they might as well just launch a war and crush everyone else, they are able to, so why don't they?"

Shepard held his hands up in a pacifying gesture "Whoa Jack, remember, competition's nice, and it also helps show the people our government system isn't the worst, that they should be happy with the amount of say they have in government compared to most other races."

* * *

_Thane Krios' Quarters, CSC Normandy, January 8, 3871_

"Hello Thane, how are you settling in?" Shepard asked, leaning against the doorway.

Thane paused in his reading of the guides to the new weapons he'd chosen. "I never expected Coalition warships to be so… vacant, or luxurious for that matter." Indeed, typical quarters were almost standard hotel rooms.

Shepard understood "Ah… you're one of the Kahje Drell, aren't you?"

Thane nodded "Yes, I was born and raised there."

"What do you feel about the situation with the Hanar? They could have settled you guys on a desert planet instead of Kahje, better life expectancy and all."

"I don't dislike them, since they wouldn't be able to survive on a desert planet, and it's hard to help someone if you die in their environment."

Shepard crossed his arms "What about you guys in theirs, huh?"

Thane shrugged "Beggars can't be choosers, as you humans say."

"Well what about them not letting you guys have the choice of going back to the UN of Drell?"

"That's a different matter… one which I don't quite understand, but they have their reasons. After you get past the politeness, you find them quite warm."

_If they were cold they'd probably die of hypothermia…_ Shepard thought "Wait, don't Hanar communicate in bioluminescence?"

"True, but many of the Kahje Drell have genetically modified eyes, for example, I can't tell a dark red from black, but I see ultraviolet as a sort of silvery colour."

_Heh, the UND prefers using technology to augment their lives and use eyepieces when communicating with Hanar, though my opinion of the jellyfish is more of a "Kill the slavers!" thing now. Originally, I liked them for helping the Drell, but the past two years' incidents, their unwillingness to let go of their pseudo-prisoners…_ Sheppard seethed internally at the thoroughness of the brainwashing of Thane, but he would do his job, so John would put up with it, but after all this was over, if the Hanar still refused to release what were effectively indentured servants i.e. slaves, and the Reapers invaded, the Coalition would not assist the Hanar. True, they might land on Kahje to evacuate the cities, but the Hanar government would be left behind, even if they weren't dealt with by torpedo fire. "So, you said we could discuss your condition."

The green-scaled man nodded "Ah yes, Kepral's Syndrome, it is a condition where the lungs of a Drell have been exposed to overly humid air for too long and slowly begin losing functionality."

Shepard cut him off "I've heard of it, the UND's citizens have all been augmented to be impervious to it, in fact, they can handle a rainforest without much trouble now."

Thane looked thoughtful for a moment "Hmm… interesting…"

Shepard shrugged "They'll probably come up with a fix soon, and it's the main reason the UND insists the Hanar let the Kahje Drell live somewhere else, to prevent death by Kepral's… Anyways, Thane, there's been an e-mail, I think you should see it, it's partly about you after all…" Shepard brought it up on his chest-projected holo-console. "Check it out."

The assassin nodded "Alright, Shepard."

_From: Jeirt_

Greetings, Commander Shepard

Liara T'Soni gave me your contact information. I was one of the cleaning crew in the Dantius Towers. You helped me get out of there. According to T'Soni, you also found Thane. He took down some of the Eclipse mercs trying to gun us down, and I wondered if you could pass along my thanks.

The way he moved... one was dead before they even knew he was there. He snapped another's neck, then shot a third, all in the space of a few heartbeats. It was incredible. He moved like a dancer, grace and power in constant motion.

Seeing him changed my life, woke up something in me I don't fully understand yet. I don't know what I'm going to do, but Salarian lives are too short to waste as custodians, especially when there's so much else out there. I'm going to find something that lets me capture what I saw in him, that beauty, that aesthetic perfection.

I'm also going to buy some nice clothes.

So if you could tell him that... or just whatever parts of that you think appropriate... I'd appreciate it.

Sincerely,  
Jeirt

"Exemplifies Salarian thought." Thane said, chuckling "Out of nowhere he goes 'buy some nice clothes?' Amusing."

Shepard grinned "I agree, it is pretty funny." They spent the next while trading jokes and finding common ground with each other after Shepard finished raging against Hanar oppression.

* * *

_Forward Starboard Observation, CSC Normandy, January 9, 3871_

"Shepard." Samara said, tilting her head slightly the same way she did last time, still with her back turned to the Commander.

"I wanted to check in."

"I am always happy to talk with you." That is if you included combat banter as talk, otherwise, this was only the second time since she came onboard that they really talked.

"I'm interested in learning more about Asari Justicars…"

Samara shut down her biotics with her usual brief corona and gestured Shepard over to sit next to her, the Marine shifting his Cybran Heavy Armour somewhat to be able to sit cross-legged. "We hold a unique place in Asari culture. Justicars are from another era. Young Asari grow up watching vids about our adventures, pure fiction, of course."

Shepard suddenly remembered watching vids about Order Templar with Ashley and James when he was still a child, wondering if he and James's daddy had ever done any of the things the vids showed. Samara turned her head toward Shepard, noting his suddenly vacant look "Some Asari are uncomfortable with us, but so few Justicars exist that most have never met one."

She looked out toward space again, while Shepard's mind was whirring with the information, remembering his mother's words "Many Aeon, especially now, are uncomfortable with the idea that such an organization such as the Order Templar ever was allowed to exist, but so few existed, and even fewer exist now that that the Order has been disbanded, that most have never met one."

So, one eyebrow went up "There are only a few Justicars?"

"Few Asari wish to make the sacrifices necessary to become one of us, and the training has a high casualty rate." _Great, this sounds so familiar that soon we'll be finding out that the whole Order is corrupt except for the actual Justicars themselves…_ Shepard thought. "It is a life of constant danger, throughout the entire Galaxy, there are only a handful of us at any time."

Shepard frowned "Why would anyone want to be a Justicar?" At least the Order Templar had been more of a "normal citizen by day, protector of justice by night" thing… relatively, since it didn't eat up your whole life.

Samara bowed her head "It is a deeply personal matter, sometimes the most brutal path is the only honest one."

"This Code of the Justicar seems central to your life…" Shepard let it hang from there.

"It is five thousand sutras, and covers every situation one can encounter. I have memorized every word. There is only the Code" _Uh oh, fanatic alert anyone?_ Shepard's brain said.

"Sometimes justice calls for mercy." Shepard prodded.

That got a response as Samara turned to look him in the eyes "It does not exist to bring about spiritual enlightenment. Its purpose is to punish the wicked and protect the innocent."

Shepard remembered what Samara had said earlier "The Asari I've spoken to seem conflicted about Justicars…"

Samara shrugged "In this age, people see shades of grey everywhere. The Code of the Justicar is black and white." Shepard suddenly had a feeling that if he wanted to annoy Samara all he had to do was get a candle and start narrating "We are grey, we stand between the darkness and the star…"

Samara turned toward him, eyes flicking down to the still not quite familiar grey shoulder plate of the UEF Medium Armour she'd taken to wearing around to get used to "I might seem a hero to many, but I would kill them all if I had to."

"What role do you think Justicars have in Asari society?" _I need to compare it and the Order Templar… and getting it straight from the horse's mouth is… oh, sorry if I offended you, it's just that your face is quite angular… wait, that's not quite right either… thank god I'm not saying any of this, just thinking it._

"I would say that the closest human equivalent is a knight errant, from your medieval lore, perhaps mixed with a bit of samurai…" _The Coalition seems to have kept its secrets better than I'd thought, considering the Aeon are the main ones to open their worlds to tourists, and those are overwhelmingly Asari…wait…_ John thought.

"You know about knights errant and samurai?"

"When I knew I must leave Asari space again, I studied the history and morals of new species. When I was a Maiden wandering the galaxy, humans had not yet entered the galactic scene; in fact, I remember reading reports of when your people were first discovered, a pre-nuclear Civilization in an area astoundingly short on Mass Relays, nearly two thousand years ago, in my Maiden years, I heard of strange ships in the area, but never met any, then, almost fifteen hundred years later, we find a Galactic juggernaut has developed with technology far in advance of what the Citadel has."

"What did your studies tell you about us?"

"You are more individualistic than any other species I have ever encountered. If three humans are in a room, there will be at least six opinions." Shepard nodded, it was true, that was the UEF minimum number, for Aeon, add at least one each for the Way, and for Cybran you might as well count the entire population of the Cybran Nation, due to the Network. "I like your species, and I'm curious to see what you will do with your technology."

"With any luck, we'll be wise about it." _Just like I'm wise not to point fingers and ask you if you forgot saying you learned the dangers of curiosity_ "What does your code say about killing?"

Samara looked out toward space and sighed "I am compelled to kill the wicked, if a Justicar is involved, peaceful resolutions are long past."

"You make killing sound so casual." Sure, Coalition Marines are trained to be callous about killing the enemy, but this was a step beyond that.

"I remember each being I have slain, they are always in my thoughts."

Check, check and check, hmm, might tell her about the Order Templar sometime, she'd find it interesting, to be sure, should probably ask her about something else, but… oh well, here goes, if she says no, then I really should tell her about the Order Templar sometime… "Does the Code forbid romantic involvement?"

Samara blinked before turning to look at Shepard for a long moment before shaking her head "It does not." _Now why is he asking that?_ A small part of her mind, very small, prompted. _Is there a word for the opposite of pedophile?_ "However, I would never be interested in such, that part of my life is well behind me"

Shepard was completely taken aback _I _will_ have to tell her about the Order Templar someday… not today though, still, best for her to keep her options open, it's not healthy being locked in like that, after all, Aunt Ariel did tell me how she had to "defrost" dad to make him receptive to mom's advanced, might as well do the same for the sake of whoever she eventually ends up with…_ "You could meet someone who reawakens those desires…" _Wow, Shepard, just had to go borrow Grand Crusader Ariel Williams' line, didn't you?_

Samara turned to fix Shepard with her eyes again "I am near enough fifteen hundred years old, I know myself and my desires, but your curiosity is quite welcome."

Shepard nodded; defrosting Samara couldn't be done in a day. After all, defrosting his father hadn't been done in a day either, according to Aunt Ariel. "I should go."

"Pleasure talking to you, Shepard." Samara said, going back to her meditation.

"Have fun, Samara." Shepard left after that.

* * *

The Commander decided to go hang out with Jedore in her quarters on the Crew Deck. "Hey Jedore."

"Howdy Shepard, how's life?" The ex-merc said, throwing a knife at the dartboard she'd put up on one wall, striking precisely into one of the wooden numbers' tip.

Shepard sat down on her desk next to the knifes arrayed there, which she was picking up and flinging one by one from her position half-sitting, leaning against the headboard of the bed. "I'd like to learn something about you… get to know you better."

Jedore shrugged, tucking a lock of her blonde hair behind her ear "What's there to know? That my Dad used to be one of the most notorious UEF ACU pilots until he retired in 3844?"

John frowned "Why did your Dad retire when the war was desperate?"

"Well in early August 3844, it wasn't as bad as it became later, since things had been quiet for a while and Dad was getting simply too old for them to keep him on, nearly two hundred fifty, you know. Also, politics got in the way, if he got killed, it would be a major blow to morale, and the UEF couldn't afford that after so many years of war. The Aeon attacked Rigel, and Dad was paired with a rookie, his words on the subject were 'Good kid, but he had no business handling an ACU', he barely managed to evacuate the population before being forced to go through the gate himself since they wouldn't recall him."

Shepard's eyes narrowed "Wait, the attack on Rigel… was your Dad's main defensive base on the shore of a major sea, in a snowy area of the planet? And was it on August 9, 3844?"

"Yes, yes, and yes, what about it?"

Shepard gaped before answering "That… that was Operation: Joust! That was when current Grand Crusader Williams got her first taste of real combat assisting the current Avatar of War, Rhiza, only a Crusader at the time!"

Jedore glanced at Shepard "So?"

"Well, it just seems like we're all inexplicably tied together somehow…" Shepard smiled down at the woman, who swung her legs over the side of the bed and stood, watching him with a frown.

"What are you talking about?"

"It's just that Ariel Williams is to me when off-duty Aunt Ariel, and her first mission was your father's last… seems to be more than just a coincidence."

"Perhaps…" Jedore said slowly, eyeing Shepard up and down. "Before you even ask, Dad was pretty old when mom had me, they were both surprised, since she hadn't gotten pregnant before, in shore leave time over a couple centuries, and Dad got a lot for doing such a good job and beating back Aeon and Cybran advances often."

Shepard tilted his head "Didn't your father get called back for the Seraphim War?"

"Yeah, though they decided after Dad re-retired after the War to move out to one of the non-Coalition colonies, Dad didn't like how we were all trying to smooth everything over and pretend it never happened, said we should remember our mistakes instead of trying to forget them."

Shepard stroked his chin thoughtfully "Most Aeon and Cybrans aren't trying to forget the mistakes, but the UEF is half and half, I guess I can understand him… though I thought the colonies were all those who didn't want to put up with the other factions…"

"Not all of us, Shepard…" There was a comfortable silence before the young woman continued "I thought Cybrans had thing for thinking logically, I never expected them to jump around on trains of thought like you…"

Shepard shrugged "Mordin's a scientist and look how his brain jumps around." That shut Jedore up, for about two seconds.

"He's a classic Wild West Bandit with how much he jumps trains…" Jedore slowed down as she and Shepard both imagined the horrifically comical image of Mordin with dual pistols, rifle across his back, and cowboy outfit, riding a horse next to one of the 1800s steam engine trains and jumping aboard from his horse "…of thought."

Shepard chuckled and they lapsed into a comfortable silence before he started again "All these coincidences that resulted in our being here as a team, they feel like more than mere coincidence, Jedore, almost as if destiny or another force of some sort (A/N: LOL) willed us to be here together on the good ship Normandy."

Jedore arched one finely sculpted eyebrow "Oh? What makes you say that?"

Shepard shrugged "If we hadn't run into you the way we did… we'd probably have killed you, and you wouldn't have been on our crew, who knows how many things that could have changed?"

Jedore laid back on her bed casually while Shepard spoke "Hmm… if I didn't know any better, Shepard, I'd say you were interested in getting closer to me."

Shepard almost facepalmed _Of course, I like being close with all my crew…_ "Yeah, I'm interested, why wouldn't I be?"

"Hmm…" Jedore eyes him up and down and Shepard got a distinct uncomfortable feeling in the back of his head that told him to _Get out, NOW!_ "Well, I suppose I wouldn't mind letting you get close, John Shepard, Miranda sure did a fine job from what I can see, let's talk…"

Shepard was almost frozen in place "Yes, lets." _Find a way to get out of this mess, ASAP, Shepard, or you're dead._ "So, what do you want to talk about?

"Oh, life in the Coalition, I guess, I've never experienced it before…"

It would be after nearly half an hour of chatting that Shepard was able to drive Jedore's advance back for now and leave the blonde's room, emitting a relieved sigh as soon as the door closed behind him. He wasn't sure what the hell had gotten into the crew, but if it didn't affect mission performance, so be it, he could hold them at bay for as long as it took.

* * *

A/N: I would have had James romance Jack to help her achieve some stability in her life, but I couldn't because of a series of gigantic overarching plot devices that have always lurked in the shadows but manifested themselves in no more than a few subtle hints here or there, and which absolutely DEMAND he romance Tali. All will be revealed in good time, though, as an Oculus… I mean, 343 Guilty Spark (they look very similar, plot device?), speaks… I said too much didn't I?


	16. Shadows of the Seven Hand

A/N: Shepard's relationships are still up in the air (as in, will they collectively rape him?) for now, take your picks and guesses…

Did no one notice the "Symbiont Uprising" and "Evening War" lines in the previous chapter? Which other similar event is referred to by very similar terms?

In response to Da-Reading-Guy's review, there is a short section at the beginning of this chapter addressing a certain problem.

* * *

Chapter 16: Shadows of the Seven Hand

_Citadel, January 10, 3871_

Armin and Tevos were meeting in private, talking about how, now that Nassana Dantius was dead and her sisters had taken over the corporation, the Dantius Corporation's stocks had gone up due to more people being open to dealing with them. They were wrapping up that topic when the discussion turned to the means of death.

"According to reports, Thane Krios has agreed to work for Shepard free of charge." Tevos said, watching her fellow Councillor.

"An unlikely situation, but STG correlates it, attempts to contact Mordin Solus to have him feed us data on Shepard's activities have been stonewalled by the Doctor himself, apparently he believes Shepard is fighting for the right cause and informed me in extremely vulgar terms to, if toned down to more appropriate terms 'Stop being a cloaca'." The Salarian finished his air quotes and speech before going back to his straw, drinking some more of his drink before pausing and remarking "Mordin was one of our best, if he thinks Shepard isn't conducting espionage, he probably isn't."

Tevos nodded "I agree with you, he hasn't gone to any real core worlds yet, Ilium might be a Core World in theory but it's more of a corporate planet… so let it be, Armin." She paused, then frowned "Let's just hope the Turians don't get too suspicious… we can't handle the Coalition in open conflict, or at least not until the upgrades we had already planned a thousand years ago for the Ascension are done." The ship had been the Asari race's first attempt at building a capital ship, and usually served as a museum piece when they began building the more economical, smaller ships, but now the original upgrade plans would have to be put in motion, as they were simply necessary for standing off Coalition fleets. "Then we _might_ be able to blast through to one of their capital worlds and attract most of their fleets while the other worlds are dealt with. Without the upgrades, there is no chance in hell we're even going to be able to get a stand-off…"

Armin nodded "I agree… by the way, would you mind allowing us to investigate…"

Tevos' biotics flared dimly in threat, her control keeping the energy very dim instead of the brilliant coronas inexperienced users tended to throw off "NO! Sorry, Armin, but we have a strict policy, that place is under maximum guard and you know as well as I do that Asari Commando squads are the best guerrilla fighters other than the Coalition, I warn you against trying anything stupid about it."

The Salarian held his hands up in surrender "Okay, okay, I get it…"

* * *

_CSC Normandy, January 10, 3871_

"Hey Commander, Jack wants to see you in her hidey hole on the Cargo Deck." Kelly said as the man passed, he nodded toward her in acknowledgement and walked to the CIC elevator before taking it down to the Cargo Deck, walking over to Jack's rooms.

"Jack, Kelly said you wanted to say something? Something important?"

Jack was pacing restlessly "I got thoughts like little bugs crawling in and out of my head, I can't stop them." She finally went outside and sat down on a recessed wall ledge in the main cargo bay "You know I have a history with the Cybran Nation, know how far back it goes?"

Shepard put his hands in his pockets "I'll listen to anything you have to say, Jack."

"Your pal, Brackman, never seen him before except in new broadcasts, but the Cybran Nation raised me. First thing I remember is my cell door in a Cybran base… They did experiments, drugged me, tortured me. Whatever chance I had to be normal, they stole it by trying to turn me into some super-biotic." Her face twisted into a snarl "The doctors, the other kids, every one of them hated me, they let me suffer."

Shepard frowned and clasped his hands behind his back, facing Jack "You're absolutely certain the Cybran Nation was running the facility?"

Jack snorted "I was a kid, but I wasn't dumb, I knew how to listen, it was the Cybrans. Don't care how far down the chain it was. They thought they were so clever… turns out, mess with someone's head enough, and you can turn a scared kid into an all-powerful bitch, fucking idiots."

"I'm going to talk to Doctor Brackman" Shepard cracked his knuckles "And he'd better have some answers…"

Jacked snorted "He'll just deny everything. That's not what I'm after anyway. I found the coordinates in your files. I want to go to the Teltin facility on Pragia, where they tortured and drugged me." She stood and walked toward Shepard "I want to go to the center of the place, my cell. I want to deploy a big fucking bomb, and I want to watch from orbit when it goes."

Shepard nodded "Joker, set a course for Pragia." He called into his comm.

Joker's response was simple: "Aye Commander! All hands, brace for Quantum…"

"Quantum Storm System moving into current area, Quantum Jump without established gates at both ends inadvisable." EDI reported.

"Alright, everyone, brace for Warp Jump! We'll clear this storm system before we go Quantum." Joker called.

"I owe you one." Jack said to Shepard before grabbing onto a railing in the wall buttress-like structures between the recesses.

EDI started counting down "Jump in ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one." There was a slight jolt and feeling of vertigo before the Normandy exited warp several systems away, then charged up its Quantum Jump drive and jumped to the system where Pragia was located.

* * *

_Pragia, January 10, 3871_

Tali, Miranda, Jack and Thane were in the Restorer with Shepard as the ground crew, while Jedore, Samara and Garrus formed the reserves in case something went horribly wrong. Jack was looking out the holographic "windows" of the Restorer while it descended quickly through the atmosphere of the planet. "I forgot how much I hate this place… see the landing pad yet? Has to be built, and on the roof too, or the vegetation would constantly try overgrowing it."

EDI called in "Shepard, I am picking up thermal signatures everywhere, except at your Landing Zone."

"Something's distorting the sensors, probably multiple Twilights… Hell, even Omni's only partly effective, even if directed downward, due to atmospheric interference at this range."

"This was a secret Cybran facility…" Thane thought to himself out loud, looking over a 3D holo of the area's scan results.

"Yeah, the Coalition builds any equipment to last… assholes. It was a mistake coming back here, Shepard, what if there are Myrmidons?"

"Settle down, Jack, everything's gonna be fine." Shepard said, having elected to change his helmet optics to the yellow typical of Seraphim, be they Imperium or Republic, units, since the typical Cybran Red would be an irritation to Jack on this mission.

"Yeah, okay, let's get on the ground." The Restorer pulled in and dropped the five-person team before swooping away, the other three saluting from the airlock before it cycled shut, letting them back into the ship as a reserve.

Shepard and co, weapons ready, ran down the metal catwalks into the facility proper. The first rooms had a large number of containers, and Jack looked around, eyebrows raised on her helmet optics "I never saw this room, I think they brought new kids in these containers… They were messed up and starving, but alive… usually."

Shepard looked around the rooms before sighting a still-functional console and hacking some Citadel credits from it, then, seeing the place was devoid of any goodies, he led the crew through the door that had been their left and down a set of stairs, finding a security console. He activated it, the voice of a security officer playing back from a log. "We can't afford letting the Coalition, especially Brackman, find out what we're doing here… I'm ordering tighter security measures, let's hope it works."

"Sounds like someone was working beyond their contract…" Thane remarked, checking his

Miranda frowned deeply "Sounds like they were rouge… problem is, who could they have been? Doctor Brackman never mentioned anything like this…" The log ended and Jack shut the damaged console off.

"He never said what they were hiding from Brackman…" Jack growled at the woman before following Shepard through a door to a large room, which was very much wrecked. "I remember escaping to this room, fighting here… I saw sunlight through the cracks in the ceiling." They moved down to the floor level of the room "Only a half-dead guard between me and freedom, he was begging for his life." She snorted as Shepard went to work on a locked crate he had found and was beginning to bypass.

"Alright, done here, let's move… picking up hostiles, classified as varren, be ready." Shepard put the LBR, Assault Mode, against his shoulder in readiness as the beasts moved around the corner and the squad opened fire, cutting the critters down in short order. "Keep moving, guys… wait, stop… this looks like an arena…" He looked around in suspicion as if expecting there to be an ambush, after all, it was a good place for one…

"That's right, they used to stage fights here, pit me against other kids. I loved it, only time I was ever out of my cell." Jack crossed her arms in front of her chest.

"What were they studying?" Shepard asked in disbelief that anyone connected to the Cybran Network could be capable of such a thing without at least some wisp of it leaking to the outside.

"Hell if I know, maybe that's how they get their kicks. I never understood anything that happened here."

Shepard's teeth were grit tight, vowing that if he found anyone responsible for this they would be soup at best "How often did they do this?"

"I was in a cell my whole life, sometimes they took me out and made me fight, filled me with drugs… other stuff, time gets funny in a cell."

Shepard's grip on his LBR was beginning to get dangerous "Did other children die in these fights?"

"I was a kid, filled with drugs, I got shocked when I hesitated… Narcotics flooded my veins when I attacked."

"They actually rewarded you for attacking." Shepard said flatly.

Jack shrugged "I still get warm feelings during a fight."

Shepard kicked a rock "What the hell was wrong with those people?"

She shrugged again "I don't know, doesn't matter now."

Shepard sighed _If the Network had so much as gotten a whiff of this everyone responsible for this facility would have been ground meat in under an hour…_ he thought "Let's keep moving." They moved down a hallway to a security console that Shepard activated.

"Security officer Zemkl, Teltin facility. The subjects are out of their cells! They're tearing the place up! Subject Zero is going to get loose, I need permission to terminate, repeat, permission to terminate!" The man's armour was only Citadel-grade, indicating there was no way in hell this could have been an actual Coalition or Cybran op, but who could… the Seven Hand Node, what was left of them, from the small purple Cybran logo on the man's armour. _Curse you, Seven Hand!_ Shepard seethed.

"All subjects besides Zero are expendable, keep Jack alive!" The Controller apparently ordered.

The soldier nodded "Understood, I'll…" he was cut off by Jack turning off the terminal, shaking her head.

"That's not right… I broke out when my guards disappeared, I started that riot…"

"Things might have happened that you didn't see…"

Jack shook her head some more "The other kids attacked me, the guards attacked me." She spread her arms "The automated systems attacked me…" She leaned forward threateningly and poked Shepard's black chest plate with a similarly black-armoured finger "That doesn't leave lots of room for interpretation."

"Okay, okay, we'll get to the bottom of this don't worry." Shepard said, raising his hands for a moment before turning to the door behind them and opening it, heading down the stairs.

"This place is supposed to be empty, who the fuck shot that varren? It's a fresh kill…"

Shepard merely shrugged from lack of an answer, hacking through a door on the first landing only to find some Element Zero canisters, unnecessary, but they could be sold for money… He moved further down, again noting the Cybran logos on all the doors, and passed into a large room that seemed abandoned… except for the threats his Omni showed, making him toss a pair of Electron Grenades toward the other side of the room while opening fire on the Blood Pack Troopers at the windows on the left side of the room.

The fight was brutal and close-range, Tali going toe-to-toe with a Blood Pack Flame Trooper and Warrior at once with her flamethrower, all three combatants being bathed in flames, but the blue-white death Tali sprayed was far better than what the Blood Pack had. Thane, Jack and Miranda were busy handling the other Blood Pack troops that had decided to use the area as an ambush point while Tali was screaming something vaguely among the lines of "Come get some you motherfucking sonovabitches!"

Once the flames from the dead Blood Pack troops had died down, Tali did a running jump off the crates she had been next to before onto the second landing, spraying her flamethrower ahead of her as she charged around it, bellowing as if she had suddenly been replaced by a berserk Krogan and literally batting flaming Vorcha off the catwalks with her weapons.

Once the squad was finished gaping and Tali jumped down just before a dead pyrotechnic Vorcha fell with a crash behind her, giving her a fiery background, Jack looked around and asked "Why'd they need a morgue? This was a small facility."

Tali replied first, quietly, running a hand over the metal morgue "beds" while she spoke "The other children must have died in great numbers, even then, they were part of the experiment."

Jack didn't respond until the crew moved onward, to a new, wide catwalk next to a panel of windows that displayed the stormy night outside "So strange to be back here… I feel like… I'm pissed off, I'm a dangerous bitch, but then I'm a little girl again."

* * *

Jedore blew her nose hard on a Kleenex and wiped her tears as she, Garrus and Samara watched the footage from the crew's helmet cams, sitting in the Restorer, which was parked far away from the facility "It's so sad…" The blonde ex-merc said, dabbing at her eyes.

"Yes… Jack is as much a victim as any I have seen in my long life, truly sad…" Samara said, watching the video intently but evidently disturbed form the tone of voice.

* * *

Shepard felt his heart sink further at the profusion of Cybran logos as they moved down the empty hallways, Jack still reminiscing "Shit, It's complicated, let's just go plant that bomb…"

Two red hostile contacts were found up ahead, and Shepard used his LBR to take out the two ambushing Vorcha, they moved down the stairs into a hallway with many flanking doors, throwing an Electron Grenade to eliminate the varren that came rushing out of the rooms. Miranda looked about in surprise, noting the small beds "They… they really kept children here?"

"I'd expect you to know, Cheerleader, after all, this is the sort of thing you get off on." Jack growled, following Shepard down past the rows of dorms and through another door. Upon seeing the former window to her cell she frowned "It's a two-way mirror?" When the others looked at her for her random outburst, she continued "My cell is on the other side, I could see all the other kids out here." They went around the U-shaped catwalk and through another door into a wrecked room "I must have come through here when I broke out but I don't remember it…" She looked around and shook her head "This is a bad place…"

Shepard noticed a console, a security console, beside the entrance to the right room, and activated it. The scientist on it began talking, "Entry 1054, Teltin facility, the latest iteration of PergNim went poorly, subjects One, Four and Six died, no biotic change among survivors. We lowered core temperatures of surviving subjects, but no biotically beneficial reactions occurred, as a side effect, all subjects died. So we'll not try that on Zero. I hope our supply of biotic-potential subjects holds up, we are going through them fast." The man wiped his forehead as if nervous about running out of subjects, and Shepard paused the replay with shaking hands, examining the hologram while Jack turned and took a couple steps away.

"This is bullshit! They weren't experimenting on the other children for my safety!"

Shepard took a while to respond "You aren't responsible for what happened here, Jack…"

"You don't get it, Shepard, I survived this place because I was tougher than the rest, that's who I am."

"You move on, harder and tougher" _Like I will move on from this place, any Seven Hand person I meet who's older than a child will die, I swear on the graves of all those who died here…_ Shepard sighed before heading to another console.

The same scientist was saying "It's all fallen to pieces, the subjects are rampaging and Zero is loose, we're shutting Teltin down, what a disaster… We'll infiltrate and piggyback in the Cybran Nation's biotic research… hopefully that will… who? Zero! Wait!" The holographic man went flying just before the image went out.

Jack appeared agitated, turning to Shepard with her eyes wide "Shepard, they started up somewhere else…"

Shepard merely nodded, having seen the logo patch colour on the man's under-shirt "As I thought, Cybran, but not Cybran Nation, damned Seven Hand did this before we shut them down, permanently, during the Saren-hunt. The Cybran Nation's programs are Coalition stuff, they don't torture children there."

Jack frowned "A lot of this… isn't the way I remember it…"

"You had bigger worries at the time than committing this to memory… hell, I come here once and I almost want to forget this sort of thing was ever done by Cybrans…"

"Maybe… We're getting close to my cell, the place I came from, let's keep going."

Shepard nodded and the five-person crew moved toward the next door. They opened it to see a large squad of Blood Pack troops, their Krogan leader on a balcony talking with someone. "Hey Aresh, it's Kureck. Yeah, the intruders are here. You want them dead, we have to talk credits. You promised us lots of salvage, but this place is a waste…" There was a pause "Fine, we'll put 'em down, then I'm coming in there and we'll talk salvage."

Shepard tilted his head, changing the helmet optics to a sneer "Why are you here?"

"Sorry, no discussion, we're on a job and you're in the way." The two Blood Pack Warriors and Kureck himself drew their weapons, Gauss Rifles ready for a fight with bayonets extended. The Vorcha on the lower area of the room were already raring for a fight.

"Jack, two Shockwaves, target the Blood Pack Warriors!" Shepard yelled as he ducked behind a pile of reinforced shipping crates, Gauss Rifle rounds pinging off the other side. The biotic detonations rippled outward from their line along with other forms of fire "Tali, cover the left side!" He yelled as the two Blood Pack Warriors began circling around to the left on his HUD.

"Got it, Shepard… The earth will burn!" The Quarian roared as she filled the left side walkway with fire, taking fire of her own from the Krogan. They charged her and she nimbly sidestepped by leaping out of the way, while still burning away at the two before catching a bayonet strike with her gauntlet and wrenching the blade aside with her hand, spewing fire into the face of the Krogan. Shepard and crew were dealing easily with the Vorcha thrown all over the place by Jack's biotics, and Shepard noted how Thane was adapting well to his new weapons, getting quick, accurate kills.

In the end, Kureck went down to an overcharged LBR bolt that cut through his head from Shepard's Laser Battle Rifle. Jack kicked a corpse on her way over to Shepard "Only room left is my old cell. Whoever Aresh is, he's in there."

Shepard nodded and they proceeded, walking into the room as a scattered front in case of a trap, Shepard leading, calling "Come out, we know you're here."

Jack, who had her helmet off but still with shields up over her head, narrowed her eyes at the tired-looking man who emerged from behind a cabinet. "Who are you?" The tattooed biotic growled.

"My name is Aresh and you're breaking into my home, I know you, Subject Zero." He twitched and Jack levelled her shotgun at him "So many years have passed, and I thought I was the only survivor…"

"My name is Jack, how the hell do you know me?" Jack's eyes were wide and burned with an inner fire as she snarled her words.

"We all knew your face, Jack, they inflicted horrors on us so their experiments wouldn't kill you. You were the question, and I'm still looking for the answer."

"Looks like you're not the only one pulled back here, Jack."

Aresh shook his head sadly "I tried to forget this, but a place like this, it doesn't forget you… It follows you. I hired these mercs and came back almost a solar year ago. We're rebuilding it piece by piece, I'm gonna find out what they knew, how to unlock true biotic potential in humans" He turned his back to them, Jack's shotgun still levelled at him "I'm restarting the Teltin facility… it will be beautiful."

Jack looked to Shepard "I wanted a hole in the ground, he's trying to justify what happened by using it?"

Shepard replied with "We can blow up the place but that still leaves him… what do we do with another you?"

Jack circled around Aresh "That's easy…"

The man held up his hands "Just leave me here…this is where I belong…"

"Fuck that…" Jack stunned the man with a biotic strike and froze him in position, bent over and her shotgun against the back of his neck.

Shepard shook his head "Jack, he's trapped in his past, you need to move on from yours."

"He wants to restart this place, so he needs to die…" Jack pushed the man's head lower.

"He's crazy and he's never gonna restart this facility. You have to look at you, your past doesn't have to control you."

"FUUUUUCCCKKK!" Jack screamed before kicking Aresh upright "Get out of here, go!" The man ran without a glance back. "He's not worth chasing, not over this…"

"You did the right thing, Jack."

"Maybe… this room was my whole childhood, give me a minute to look around."

Shepard nodded, taking off his Cybran Heavy Armour's helmet and clipping it to his belt just like Jack's armour was clipped to her belt "Go ahead"

The tattooed woman started walking around "Nothing's changed… but it's all different." She went to the table first, brushing a couple fingers along it, reminiscing "I used this table for everything, it was like my best friend, I'd crawl under it to cry… I was pathetic." She went to the bed next, Shepard and co following silently, like wraiths "Sometimes I dream that I'm back in this bed being tortured, I used to tie the sheets around my wrists and try to rip them off. I want to stop coming back here…" She walked slowly along the two-way mirror, tapping it a couple times with her nails "I thought that room out there was the rest of the world, I'd pound and yell…never did any good." She shook her head and headed out of the room while Shepard extracted the bomb from his Quantum Storage Space—he'd had to take everything else out to fit it—and put it in the center of the room before catching up to Jack, who was waiting next to a huge old blood smear on the wall directly below a large grey Cybran logo. "See this scarring on the wall here? That's where I killed my first man, one of the guards tried to stop me. Instead, I stopped him. Okay, no more wallowing, let's blow this place to hell."

* * *

The Restorer had been cleared of all snotty tissues (Courtesy of Jedore), biotic energy residue (Samara's expression of sadness) and spent bullets (Garrus using the relatively indestructible structural fields of the gunship to vent his anger at those who established the facility) by the time the away team got back. None of them suspected a thing as they sat down in the main cargo hold of the Restorer and it flew away, navigated by Shepard using his armour's strategic interface.

Jack waited a bit as the T3 AA Gunship flew away through the storm, barely feeling the turbulence outside as she flicked the cap to the detonator off, then back on, then off, then back on again, almost obsessive, before looking up uncertainly at Shepard. The man nodded in approval, knowing the Restorer was far enough for the structural fields to take zero damage from the blast. Jack pushed the button, the Gunship only vibrating slightly as the warhead Shepard had left went off. It was a low-yield (only roughly ten kilotons) version of a Shocker strategic Bomber's Quark Bomb, minus all the external armoured casing, guidance systems, sensors, thrusters and such to save space and weight, and it utterly annihilated the facility in one blast, the jungle around the area catching fire as the blast rippled outward.

"You know what I just realized?" Tali said, leaning back and crossing her arms and kicking one leg over the other one.

Thane was the one to respond "What?"

"I think it might have been better for Jack if we'd built an Ahwassa and then let her be the one to push the bomb drop button."

Shepard slapped a hand to his forehead "Right, and that would allow for multiple passes if she didn't nail it the first time with the Othe Tactical Bomb… OR we could have used a Revenant and the high-splash Proton Bomb…"

Jack rolled her eyes "Well, pussies, it's done, stop bitching around."

* * *

Shepard was doing his (post-resurrection) after-shower routine i.e. checking that his body hair was still non-existent, checking his teeth, towelling, etc. Sure, after the Quantum Age started humans were genetically modified to have no body hair other than head and secondary sexual characteristics but he'd noticed his stubble wasn't there any more, nor was his other, non-head hair. He chalked it up to Miranda simply not having enough pieces left to work with, or perhaps it was an improvement considering he still had head hair, eyebrows, etc… He wasn't quite finished with flossing his teeth, with the bathroom door locked and still naked and not yet towelled, when Joker interrupted "Commander… Jack and Miranda are in the middle of a… disagreement. Can you head it off before they tear out a bulkhead?"

John Shepard yanked the floss out and started frantically wiping water off, shaking his head in irritation, then grabbing a shirt and yanking it over his head before scrambling into a pair of boxers. "I'll deal with it." He called as he pulled on his boxers, no time for anything more.

Joker replied with "Take pictures!" and Shepard rolled his eyes. Sadly, on his way out the elevator door, while assembling his torso piece while walking, he tripped and fell to the ground with a loud clang.

Considering the rooms normally did not have sound-dampening fields enabled, Jedore poked her head out of her door, facepalmed, and then laughed at the spectacle of John Shepard assembling his crotch and rear plates to his top and over his boxers out in the hall. Then she blushed as she realized she was ogling his back and backside, showing through the thin under-shirt that clung to the little moisture that was still on Shepard's back and the somewhat tight boxers. Fortunately, Shepard managed to cover his ass (with more than his underwear) before anyone else came to investigate, hence he managed to save himself some embarrassment…

"Touch me and I will smear the walls with you, bitch!" Okay, having a catfight between your team members was almost embarrassing… though it was interesting how the chair Jack threw at Miranda actually dented on impact with the structurally fielded wall, those chairs were tough too. Miranda had simply side-stepped, and was looking at Jack with a slightly bored, lazy smile before glancing at Shepard and her eyebrows flying up.

"Enough, stand down, both of you!" Shepard glared at Jack, then Miranda, then Jack again with a quirked eyebrow, she seemed to have traded her belts for something more appropriate, a black top of some sort, it was an un-Jack-like thing to do… perhaps she really was affected big time by the Pragia mission…

"The cheerleader won't admit what the Cybrans did to me was wrong!" _Damn, Jack, I'm Cybran… accusing all Cybrans isn't going to help you in the argument…_ Shepard thought, shaking his head.

Miranda was still half-smiling, her big green eyes (A/N: Yeah, I changed them, they're not UEF-blue anymore, in the comic Redemption they were green, so…) opened wide with a fake innocence "It wasn't Cybrans, not really, but clearly you were a mistake."

Jack whirled around to face Miranda and point at her face from point blank range "Screw you! You've got no idea what they put me through, maybe it's time I showed you!"

Shepard had had enough "Our mission is too important to let personal feelings get in the way."

Jack growled "Fuck your feelings. I just want her dead…"

Shepard waved it off "You both know what we're up against, save your anger for the Collectors."

Miranda shrugged "I can put aside my differences… until the mission's over."

Jack snorted "Sure, I'll do my part. I'd hate to see her die before I get a chance to fillet her myself…" Shepard noted vaguely that Jack had gained some stubble on her head… _Aeon with dark hair aren't that common, I didn't think…_ the tattooed biotic turned and headed toward the door.

Shepard held up an arm in front of her "You two going to be okay?" She pushed his arm aside, raising an eyebrow at his rather dishevelled appearance and half-assembled armour, and burst out in laughter before leaving.

Miranda sighed once Jack left "It's a good thing you came by when you did." She sat down at her console "As long as she does her job, we'll be fine. Thanks, Shepard." She noted the steam still rising from him and the slight matted appearance of the (rather soft when she'd run her hands through it, back on Lazarus Station) hair he'd started to let grow out. "Did we catch you at a bad time?"

Shepard nodded "Yeah… should probably get back to my quarters."

* * *

By the time he got back, dropping by CIC again to hear Kelly tell him he had a new message waiting for him and to talk to Joker, he'd read through the email "Pragia Facility Update"

_From: Cybran Nation Intel_

Commander John Shepard

Many years ago, we received intel of a secret Seven Hand Node facility on Pragia. Coalition Marines with ACU support arrived to find all guards dead, along with most of the subjects. Any surviving children were treated for injuries, given mild amnesic treatments, and delivered to foster parents throughout the Coalition. A few surviving doctors were lynched by the Marines (no the Marines did not get dismissed, it was as reasonable as the lynching of concentration camp personnel after a liberation) and those still alive given life sentences in maximum-labour prisons for their role in the project.

Per your report, the facility on Pragia has been destroyed.

After putting on the rest of his clothes and gear, and cleaning up his appearance, Shepard went down to talk to Jack… and thought better of it, heading off to chat with Garrus and Grunt instead, then checking in on Mordin's lab and going to visit Tali in Engineering.

* * *

A/N: There are fewer significant female characters Shepard will NOT initiate a romance path with than women he will, it's part of the baggage that comes with a re-spawn and upgrades (of course, the extent of which won't be realized/revealed until about a dozen Chapters later).


	17. In Memoriam

A/N: There is a classical thing in here: The Real Fake Statue.

Included a small Citadel scene to clear up any possible misunderstandings, though the place mentioned will not be revealed until a fic or two later… hint: It's big.

* * *

Chapter 17: In Memoriam

_Citadel, January 10, 3871_

Tevos and Armin were eating together, again. Apparently, Velarn and Anderson were going at it hot and heavy in a game of… what was the name of the video game again? Oh, right, Command & Conquer 3: Kane's Wrath. Velarn had gotten addicted to using the Steel Talons and Anderson was countering with Reaper-17 or Black Hand depending on the map. The two had quickly excused themselves after the meeting to play against one another. Having sat in on enough of the games, Tevos and Armin decided to head out for some food instead.

Armin had been unusually quiet during the afternoon's meeting, and Tevos was concerned "You aren't taking what I said about a possible way to attack the Coalition seriously, are you?"

"Huh? No, of course not, victory extremely unlikely at best, suspect Coalition have more superweapons than we know of, no point in starting war."

"Good, and remember, don't go near the most hallowed of Asari monuments, and you'll be fine."

* * *

_High Orbit over Procyon, January 10, 3871_

"Hello, Doctor Brackman, I need to borrow Saren Arterius for a mission…"

The Doctor tilted his head curiously "Saren, my child? What do you want him for?"

"Well…" John drew it out "there's this heist…" He gave the Doctor a brief briefing.

The Doctor laughed for a good minute before he responded with "Sure, I'll put in a call at his home…"

* * *

_CSC Normandy, January 11, 3871_

"We're doing missions at pretty high density, aren't we?" Miranda grumbled, while they moved toward the party. "Like one a day or something…"

Saren whistled from the backseat where he had his armour locked up and was pretending to be a statue, with the stealth fields they'd put inside the armour hiding his presence "Damn Shepard, I knew you did a lot of shit at a time, but one a day is a lot even for Spectres…" The Turian paused, before realizing "right, Quantum FTL is instant… faster than Mass Effect FTL without relays."

"Hallelujah." Garrus grunted "You're lucky Kasumi didn't shoot you on sight…" The Master Thief had had a major double-take when she saw Saren, alive and with orange Cybran circuits on parts of his face. Then she'd grinned and promptly turned him into a stone statue… a fake stone statue. Saren's grey scales helped, and Garrus had had lots of fun turning his fellow Turian into a "statue" for all the trouble he put the crew through two years back. "Still have all their armour and guns?" The Turian looked at the other one, who merely glared back in his specially modified armour.

Saren rolled his eyes "Yeah, Vakarian, don't worry… is the stasis field ready?"

"Yeah, it'll engage when we're heading in, to hide you." Miranda chimed in, pulling at a strap of her dress while Shepard and Kasumi were discussing the details of the op.

"So, other than the Grey Box, are we after anything else?" Shepard asked, checking his LSMG one last time before shoving it back into the slightly cramped Quantum Storage Space in Saren's armour.

"Uh, guys, you sure it's safe stuffing the inventory to capacity like that? Guys?" Saren was wishing he could tap someone on the shoulder, but his armour was still locked and he didn't feel like unlocking it yet, since someone could be looking in through the polarized windows of the air car.

"No, not really… Though personally since you're going in with Miranda as your date, I think you should take advantage of the scenery if possible with her."

"What?" Shepard had suddenly been thrown out of his zone of understanding, before furiously whispering to Kasumi "We're just comrades, Kasumi!"

"Sure… Tali told me you and Liara were just comrades back on the first Normandy, how do you explain that?"

"Well, that was a different matter altogether. Miranda, Saren, you're going in with me, Jacob, stay with and cover Kasumi while she infiltrates. Samara, Garrus, Jedore, Grunt, you're backup in case we need heavier hitters" The Justicar had gaped for the first time any of them remembered when she saw Saren, and it was only due to Shepard ordering her to stand down that she didn't kick his balls into orbit with her biotics.

Shepard and Miranda were the only ones in formal wear instead of armour, since there was a chance Hock could have acquired some Coalition tech to scan through their active camouflage patterns, despite being a non-Coalition man who'd made himself filthy rich in the last few years. The huge and heavily armoured version of a sky car (it was more of a sky bus) that they'd built with the SCU dropped down in front of the entrance to the party and extended a landing ramp that Shepard and Miranda walked down before the sky car took off and flew off. The rest of the team would wait in the Restorer instead… originally the only reason they came on the sky bus was in case the LZ turned hot.

The pedestal carrying Saren followed them automatically at a moderate distance. One of the guards, Eclipse by his armour, stopped them with "Just one moment, sir, there seems to be a problem with the statue…" and began scanning the "statue" before Donovan Hock himself came out of the front gates.

"Is there a problem here?"

The guard shook his head "No, Mr Hock, just doing a scan."

The man nodded at the guard before turning to Shepard "I don't believe we've met, Donovan Hock" He crossed his hands behind his back.

"I've heard a lot about you, name's Solomon Gunn." Shepard extended his hand and waited for the other man to shake it.

Hock didn't, immediately putting him in the category of "Idiot" in Shepard's books "And I have heard a lot about you… You've been very busy lately, if the extranet is to be believed."

Shepard shrugged and drew his hand back just before the Eclipse security guard reported "Sir, the scanners aren't picking anything up."

Donovan Hock walked over to the statue and looked up thoughtfully at it. "I don't think our guests would come here all the way to Ilium just to cause trouble, do you?" The guard scratched the back of his neck nervously. "You may pass through, Mr. Gunn, with my apologies…" His eyes glanced over to Miranda "your companion for the evening? I would think that being on Ilium, you would have… bluer… tastes."

"Yes, Miranda here is my companion for the party, and to be honest, Mr. Hock, I do not have great love for aliens." Being someone who left the Coalition because he wouldn't put up with Cybrans or Aeon, Hock was most certainly as bigoted as you got.

Hock nodded approvingly "Alright, Mr. Gunn, Miranda, welcome to the party." He motioned them through, while Saren was taken away somewhere… much to the Turian's consternation, though he didn't show it.

They went up the stairs and into the building, Kasumi saying over the comm. "We need to find the vault door and case the security, we can figure out the next step then." Shepard and Miranda nodded imperceptibly and moved through the party, exchanging pleasantries with the guests and looking for the vault. When they found a suspicious stairwell, Kasumi prompted them to go down it and they did, before coming to a protected vault door.

"Very nice, there's more here than I expected." The Master Thief said as they came to the vault, pacing before it while Shepard looked at Saren, who glared back from his stasis in an expression that screamed "LEMME GO!" Then he turned to watch the Thief "Password protected voice lock, kinetic barrier, DNA scanner, looks like an EX-700 series. Everything a vault needs to be impenetrable…"

"This gonna be a problem?" Shepard asked. Miranda was still watching Saren carefully, wondering if she could kick him while he was in stasis just for, well, kicks.

Kasumi chuckled "Please, remember who you're talking to. We'll need to get a voice sample for the voice lock, you'll have to go chat up Hock for that, we'll have to find a password too. DNA is child's play, we should find plenty of DNA samples in Hock's private quarters. And the barrier? Cut the power, never fails, if we can find it. Keiji could go through a system like this in his sleep, and I'm better. Let's get to it."

Both of them nodded as the Cybran Light Armour and Seraphim Medium Armour cloaked "Shepard, I see a power cable, right there." Miranda said as they walked, waiting for an opportune moment to emerge from the underground walkway. They followed it until it ended just before the stairs

"Looks like the barrier's power cable runs under the floor here…" Kasumi said from the comms. "We'll keep an eye out for EM fields… oh, there's Hock, all you need to do is keep him talking long enough for me to get a voice print. Pull out the charm on this one, Shepard, whenever you're ready…"

Shepard merely nodded and closed in on Hock, who spotted him and called "Mr. Gunn, I hope you're having a good time." He shook Shepard's hand this time "That scene at the door hasn't soured your evening, I hope."

"I understand the security, but who would dare break into Donovan Hock's home?"

Hock gaped indignantly before backing up a step and beginning an impassioned speech "Gunn, in our line of work, we attract a certain element. Few understand the pains we take to keep the barbarians at bay. People these days want comfort, entertainment, love, they don't see that the galaxy is fragile. They only have to worry about simple luxuries, why? Because men like you and I are doing the terrible things that keep the galaxy spinning. This party is for us, the cleaners, the support structure for the galaxy's gleeful delusions of peace. May there always be a market for the things we do." He spread his arms grandly and the audience began applauding. Hock looked about, as if surprised his little speech had attracted so many listeners. Shepard was certain of one thing now: The moment he was back in contact with the Normandy, he'd order Joker to build a Revenant—it was about time the Normandy got a stealth bomber anyways, and this whole thing needed levelling.

"I said get him talking, and you got him talking, we've got enough of a voice print, let him go."

Shepard nodded respectfully "Thank you, Mr. Hock, for your speech."

Hock smiled "Enjoy the party, Mr. Gunn."

Kasumi spoke again into the comm., feeding directly to Shepard's earpiece "Once we find that password, we can get past the voice scanner… wait…" A console sparked out before re-lighting from Kasumi's surface repairs, the power though was out on the barrier "That should take care of the barrier."

"Hmm… well, let's set about getting into Hock's rooms then…" Shepard remembered the balcony near Hock's rooms from when he was wandering about with Miranda earlier… that would do. "You two break into his rooms from that balcony across to his rooms, we'll find the password… somewhere"

* * *

Jacob and Kasumi had gotten the necessary samples while Miranda and Shepard found the password. Breaking into the vault was easy after that… after the vault was open and the cameras disabled (well, reprogrammed, thank God Coalition Tech hadn't leaked outside Coalition Space), Shepard and Miranda put their respective armour back on after switching off Saren's stasis field and walked with the Turian, Kasumi and Jacob into the elevator that they'd opened. Miranda, Jacob and Saren cloaked in preparation for what was to come.

A brief ride later "So this is Hock's vault, very nice… There's the Grey Box!" She began cracking the grey box before a giant hologram of Hock's face appeared.

"Don't bother, Ms. Goto, it's code locked." Hock's hologram said "I had a feeling you'd turn up sometime, and I knew that when you did, you'd get in anyways."

Kasumi shrugged "You know me, I don't like to disappoint."

"I need what's in your grey box, Kasumi. You know I'm willing to kill you for it…" Hock continued gloatingly.

"I'll admit your skills are impressive. You got into my vault like I'd left it wide open. But you're still going to die, screaming, just like your old Cybran friend." Shepard drew his Gauss LMG and blasted apart a towering vase with one shot "NOOOOOOOOOOO!" Hock screamed.

"Have I got your attention?" Shepard asked, flaring his facial circuitry.

Hock's face contorted in fury and Kasumi chuckled "That shut him up."

"Cybrans… KILL THEM!" Hock roared before his hologram flickered off and the door slammed open at the far end of the room, Eclipse troops pouring in.

Saren, Jacob and Miranda uncloaked and started shooting as well, gunning down the Eclipse troops in moments with superior firepower and a defensive chokepoint. "There's a landing pad to the east, let's get out of here!" Kasumi hollered over the comms after she sealed her helmet again.

"Alright, men, move, MOVE! Reserve Team, be ready to bring in the Restorer!" Shepard called, looking around at the artefacts, they were ancient, sure, but to destroy some of the worst scum of the Galaxy in one stroke, he would do what had to be done, besides, the Coalition could construct replicas to be used for remembering the artefacts, and his suit sensors had scanned them already while Kasumi was hacking the grey box.

They began moving, running for it before diving behind cover as an Eclipse-owned YMIR came into sight upon going through a door past a weapons locker. The worst thing about Eclipse was that they actually read the instruction manuals Raider Industries packaged in its goods, hence the YMIR was a lot more dangerous than it would be if it was, say, owned by the Blue Suns. A single K-12 fired Disruptor Rocket, specifically built for anti-shield duty, managed to take down Shepard's over-shield by nearly half in one hit. The replacement of the standard Gauss Rifle on the YMIR's right arm with a C-10 Canister Rifle didn't help either.

Fortunately, the squad had enough biotics (Miranda and Jacob), tech-capable people (Kasumi, Miranda, and Saren) and firepower (every one of the crew) to hack their way through. A volley of Overload pulses from Kasumi, Miranda, and Saren rippled off the YMIR's reinforced shields before Miranda grabbed the urban warfare mech off the ground with her biotics and then slammed it beck down, causing its shields to spark out before Jacob yanked its arms out from under it when it tried to get back up using its arms and legs.

They couldn't afford to use heavy weapons here, lest they collapse the building on them, hence Shepard rolled an Electron Grenade under the mech… which didn't quite work since YMIR armour was very heavy, especially the chest plate. A second grenade did it in though, and the rest of the Eclipse troops were a joke at best, since they didn't have Gauss Rifles, P-38s or C-10s, hell, they didn't even have the better makes of Citadel Tech Assault Rifles or Pistols.

Hock sealed the doors ahead once they got far enough, so they went up the right side stairs, comically left open… and Shepard comically gleefully hacked a PDA for credits. Saren had his mandibles splayed wide as he watched Shepard, with a big goofy smile on his face, hacking into the PDA. "Does he always act like this?"

Jacob sighed "Tell us about it…"

Kasumi was shaking her head sadly "He's worse than a thief… at least I don't rob every credit someone owns down to their underwear."

Saren shrugged, shifting his grip on his gun "Well, it's sound operational doctrine I guess… for a spec ops mission."

Shepard grabbed his Nanodart Launcher when he entered the room with the inactive YMIRs, and cloaked before saying "Guys, stay cloaked and crank active stealth up to full, we'll need to sneak past this…"

* * *

The first hint the Eclipse troops in the next room had of intruders were many of their comrades' heads spontaneously exploding, shortly before their own did.

"Hmm… seems like my Warp is more damaging than I'd thought." Miranda said, kicking a headless corpse she'd shattered with her mind.

"What's with all the inactive YMIRs standing around?" Jacob commented, looking around at the inactive mechs. "You'd think that with the utterly inadequate security, they'd use these…"

Kasumi shushed him "Don't tempt fate, Jacob."

They kept moving forward to a point where they had to go through a wall, a single ULPA bolt from Miranda dealt with it. Twenty-five kilograms of TNT's worth of energy in the form of phased plasma phased back to the same one as the rest of the matter in the wall… INSIDE the wall. The result was an in-situ explosion where part of the wall vaporized and it blew a large hole in the structure. Shepard and co were busy cutting down the Troopers and LOKIs, which weren't much of a challenge, even though they had better weapons than the security guards that had first accosted them.

Shepard raided the rooms around them for goodies before proceeding through the hole while Hock was yelling obscenities over the intercom, and being utterly ignored. The crew turned right and dove behind cover again, but not before Shepard's over-shield popped from Disruptor Ammo fire. Sadly, they were still indoors, so heavy weapons weren't an option, hence it took a while to whittle down the YMIR, especially since there were Heavies keeping the team suppressed… until they were sniped by Shepard's LBR. Thankfully repeated use of biotics (more specifically Throw) by Miranda and Jacob managed to keep the YMIR from getting too close.

The big urban warfare mech (size limited by indoors deployment requirements, but still large nonetheless) finally collapsed under a hail of Laser fire and one Overcharge bolt punching through its head. A truck pulled up while Shepard and co. were clearing out the rest of the mercs in hand-to-hand combat, all of them, even Saren, wishing they had Tali's flamethrower for use in killing house.

A truck pulled up outside the room and unloaded a group of Troopers and a number of Vanguards, plus some Heavies, that rushed in and began trading fire with the Normandy crew. Sadly for them, a Spectre, an ex-Spectre, a perfect Aeon, an elite UEF Marine/Commander, and a Master Thief, all equipped with far superior armour and better weapons, were too much for the mercenaries. Despite the fact that they were all equipped with Raider Industries weapons, better than typical Citadel Tech equipment even without upgrades to the weapons, their armour and shields were rather fragile.

"Keep the intruders busy, men! I'll deal with the situation myself…" Hock called over the intercom as the team breached the next room, Shepard soaking up some fire on his regenerated over-shield before ducking behind cover. A couple Overload pulses scattered off the over-shields of the squad without doing much to the attuned shield bubbles, it would take a lot more than what an omni-tool could do to inflict any appreciable damage to the shields. Even the harmonic shield disruption matrix the round the Absolver Shield Disruptor used had a huge amount of energy involved, though it was utterly ineffective against Structural fields since it couldn't set up and absorb energy from the Absolver's energy transmitters to do the damage (fitting such a large energy containment as would be needed for its job inside this type of round would have made it impractical and dangerous to fire). Hence, the Overloads from the Eclipse Engineers did minor damage at best.

They advanced slowly, gunning down mercs as they went, the mercs here had noticeably better body armour and shields than the previous ones, and the squad actually had to rely on cover to keep Personal Shields from taking damage.

* * *

When they'd finally killed the last merc, Shepard looted the room for goods before they headed outside, diving behind walls and scrabbling along as Heavy Laser Autogun fire rained down behind them and blasted the wall apart bit by bit "FUCKING HELL! CLOAK EVERYBODY! WHERE IS THE RESTORER WHEN WE NEED IT?" Shepard shouted over the roar of explosions as the Jester pursued them, blowing huge craters in the landing platform. Thankfully, Hock's aim was at best terrible, since all the targets he was randomly shooting at had cloaked and he didn't seem to be a great pilot of the craft either. The Seven Hand Node, judging by the purple Cybran logo still in the surface of the armour, really shouldn't have sold it to the scumbag… but at least they included Copyright protection technologies that the guys would never be able to crack. "AND HOW THE FLYING FUCK DID HOCK GET HIS PAWS ON A JESTER?"

"Even if you escape, I'll scour the Galaxy for you!" Hock yelled from his speakers. One shot actually hit Shepard and took down his over-shield instantly, badly damaging his personal shield, alarms bleeping all over his helmet as he did the best thing he could think of—fly, hopefully Hock would never suspect it… and he didn't.

He also didn't notice the Restorer far in the distance closing to Zealot AA missile range, using the "Radar" coverage from the Normandy above them to penetrate the active camouflage of the Jester (which limited visual target ID range and thus firing range without radar) and fire off a pair of Zealot missiles, then another before the first pair even hit, and more as it closed distance. Hock never saw it coming. The first pair of missiles slammed into his shields and rippled them, the second stripped his shields away, and the third smashed into his structural fields, shaking the Jester slightly before the fourth set impacted it, shaking it again as the structural fields were nearly halved.

The fourth set of missiles impacted with the beginning of a long burst of Quad Light Laser fire. Hock's craft was slower than the larger, Tier 3, Gunship, and its gun firing back was almost like a mouse giving an eagle the finger while the eagle swooped down on it. Sure, the red laser bolts that flew at the onrushing T3 AA Gunship would make Hock feel better, but it didn't change the final outcome. The Restorer's Over-shield bar didn't even drop by more than about three percent or two during the process of annihilating the Tier 1 Light Gunship, as Garrus reckoned looking at the display in the Restorer in question and the numbers flickering back and forth.

"That was a bit anticlimactic…" Saren said slowly, watching the Jester begin falling before a hail of Zealot missiles and Quad Light Laser fire vaporized the remains.

"I agree, it was a Joke, no, Jest of a fight." Shepard said, to the sound of a rippling volley of facepalms and groans from his squad. "Let's get back to the Normandy."

* * *

The Restorer hadn't even landed, merely opened the airlock and allowed everyone to boost in, while hovering some fifty meters above the ground. Kasumi plugged the unlocked grey box into her armour and brought it up on her HUD while also putting a video feed on the screen in the Restorer's cargo bay while it continued on its pre-programmed course toward the Normandy in orbit.

Her HUD lit up with a virtual landscape, of darkness with two shimmering blue rings, one inside the other, around her and Keiji standing across from her, he started speaking "Kasumi, if you're seeing this, it's because I'm dead" He gestured to his right, her left, and a long row of file images, like dominoes, appeared into the distance "The information we found is all here, Kasumi, it's big. If the Council ever got wind of this… there would be open war against the Coalition, a war of annihilation, a war the Council would lose. Kasumi, I… I encrypted the information to keep it safe, and I uploaded the encryption key to your grey box, so no one could get the whole package."

Kasumi said nothing, she walked in the virtual space through the long line of files, before zooming in on a particular one, of her and Keiji together. Keiji's grey box memory kept talking "But if I'm dead, and if anyone knows about this… then I've made you a target, my love. I'm so, so sorry."

"Keiji…" she said as if to herself. Shepard and crew stayed silent in respect.

"I know you, Kasumi. You'll want to keep these memories forever. But you don't need some neural implant to know I'll always be with you." She was smiling to herself at the particular memory of her shoving Keiji down on his bed before jumping him "Please, Kasumi, destroy these files. There's nothing more I can do to protect you." Her eyes widened before she ran back to Keiji in the virtual space.

"I… I can't do that! This is all that's left!" She stared blankly at the grey box memory

"Goodbye, Kasumi, I love you." Keiji's memory said before she pulled his image to her, her armour's VR simulators applying the necessary pressure and thermal readings to let her feel him pulled against her one last time…

The grey box start-up file ended and Kasumi stopped the video. Shepard was first to speak "Is there any way we can just destroy the information?"

Kasumi shook her head "No, Keiji's a master at encrypting files, he's laced the information into his memories. You can't get one without experiencing the other."

Shepard nodded in understanding "If it's that important to you, keep it. Just make sure you're ready to live with the consequences."

"Yeah, I am. I'll stay off the grid." Kasumi called up the operational footage from minutes ago, just after the restorer soared off into the sky of Berkenstein, and they watched as, in a single pass, a Revenant Strategic Bomber's Proton Bomb obliterated Hock's house and all his guests, much of the human scum in the Galaxy wiped out in a single powerful detonation. "No one will know I exist…" She whispered with a grin, watching as the radio chatter went off the charts, all wondering what the hell happened and why no one picked up any sort of bomber despite the bomb having been dropped from the air. "I think I want this, thanks, Shepard." She brought up the memories again, as evidenced by the particular status light (For Status: Busy) on the Squad Panel popping on next to her name and status bars.

Knowing things, that data would most likely be on the effects of Black Sun firing and other things such as the Prothean graves discovered under the region of Burial Mounds (A/N: the map, they disproved the burial mounds theory… then proved it again) recently, or perhaps the reason for the region known as "The Great Void"… They had been testing an earlier rendition of a weapon of the same type as Black Sun and it had destabilized, blowing a massive crater in the continent it had been on, glassing almost the whole of the one super-continent on the planet before the ocean on the entire other half of the planet rushed in on the buckling, crushed crust. The mass of water had completely flooded the area the continent had formerly resided in, with the result that the planet was one big ocean with only a few islands now, and the area was known from then on as "The Great Void" (A/N: Search the map name on Supreme Commander Wiki if you want to see it).

If the Citadel Council found out how truly epically powerful the Coalition was—probably very much able to eradicate all sentient life in the galaxy if they really put their minds to it—they'd probably panic and start a war they could not win. Shepard knew perfectly well that probably the largest reason the Coalition put up with competition was to keep itself together and healthy, if they were the only ones around, they would have dissolved rather quickly into war again, it would have been inevitable. Now… not so much, and besides… having fallen in love with, and still being in love with, an Asari meant Shepard really did not want the Coalition to enter into a war of annihilation again, against the Citadel this time.

* * *

After they'd taken Saren back to Procyon for his own safety, Shepard went down to visit Jack, figuring Kasumi needed some time to herself and that it had been long enough since Teltin to talk to the tattooed, scarred biotic about it. The first thing Jack said when she saw Shepard was "Listen, I needed to wipe that place off the map. It's done now, thanks to you. Guess I owe you." She was flat on her back on her bed, eyes staring up at the ceiling "You don't know what it's like, shit like that following you around, it marks you…"

Shepard thought for a moment _Alright, where's Kelly when you need a therapist? Oh right, Jack would probably tear her apart, I guess it's up to me again…_ "I've seen a lot of death, myself and through the Network's uploaded memories… there's lots of things I'm not proud of, everyone has baggage… but all of it can be put aside. It doesn't go away, it never will, but it stops mattering as much…"

Jack raided an eyebrow and turned her head to look at Shepard "Never thought anyone would understand… Heh, shows what I know, eh?"

"Well, never thought you would show mercy, but you let Aresh live."

"He was stuck in the past, it ate him… you reminded me how that could have been me, I'm better than that dumb fuck…" She sat up "I'm not carrying that crater around, not a moment longer." She shook her head vigorously.

"Good." Shepard nodded "Remember, Jack, your past doesn't define you, use it, draw strength from it, but never let it control you or dictate your actions, be the person you can be."

She shook her head slowly "I'm not good at this…" She shrugged and swung her feet onto the ground, standing up in front of Shepard "hell, thanks, still don't get why you're going to all this trouble though."

"You're part of my crew, Jack, part of the reason I fight." _Oops… I think that part might have come out wrong… what is wrong with me, never was this awkward before I died… I really hope Miranda didn't mess me up too badly._

"No getting cheesy on me, Shepard, or I'll throw your ass out…" Jack warned before stroking her chin thoughtfully, eying him up and down "Actually, I might do that anyways."

And so Commander Shepard found himself dumped on his ass outside Jack's suite on the Cargo Deck, still blinking at how fast he'd ended up there, Jack's chuckling following him out. "Nice timing, Jack!" He hollered.

"You're welcome!"

* * *

A/N: While I don't intend for Shepard to voluntarily get laid with anyone currently on the Normandy II, he will unwittingly initiate at least one romance conversation with every possible (female or pseudo-female) romance option minus Tali and Mirala.

As a side note, I also feel sorry for anyone who wants to marry Jedore, he's going to have to meet old man Massani i.e. Zaeed the retired ACU pilot, and let's face it, you gotta be damned good, and tough as hell, to last until you're forced into retirement.


	18. To Blot Out the Sun

A/N:I know, you'd think they'd have their own RTS games, huh? It'll be addressed in this chapter. ALSO, SHEPARD'S FACIAL APPEARANCE WILL BE REVEALED! (Not in the way you'd expect.)

* * *

Chapter 18: To Blot Out the Sun

_CSC Normandy, January 12, 3871_

"Bastards didn't know what hit them. Coming around for a second patrol. Looking for survivors."

EDI put the audio feed into the briefing room before giving them her analysis "Mercenary activity detected on planet surface. Communications match Blue Suns encoding protocols. This is a possible location for rumoured site of illegal archaeological activity, Blue Suns intentions unknown."

Shepard thought about his team selection for a moment "Hmm… Samara, Grunt, Tali, Mordin, with me, let's deal with these mercs…"

"About time!" The young Krogan said, punching a fist into his other palm before heading off to suit up. "Let's hope these enemies are as worthy as those the simulator offers…"

* * *

The five-man ground team piled out of the Restorer, making the fifty-meter jump onto the Blue Suns landing pad easily, though the other side still got a warning off, it was a classic blitz, rapidly steamrolling the Blue Suns with armoured fury. The P-38s and Perdition Flamethrowers the Blue Suns had acquired from Raider Industries might be okay weapons, but their armour sure was not. Also, their upgrades for the P-38s and Perditions weren't nearly as through as the work Eclipse typically did, though their troops were better-trained.

Grunt was having a good time after being cooped up in the ship for a few days, blasting mercs at close range with his Phasic Shotgun. Samara was using the environment, putting down a Shockwave before throwing the Troopers and Legionnaires into various rock formations, usually with loud crunching noises or followed by Gauss LMG shots.

Shepard was dealing with any and all sniper or assault snipers in the area with his LBR extended into sniper mode. Mordin had begun to set up his Light Plasma Cannon before…

"What are you doing Mordin?" A slightly metallic voice said indignantly while the master of the voice shot another merc and blasted the man in half.

The Salarian didn't even pause "Deploying support weapon where there is a commanding field of fire."

Tali grabbed his arm, stilling the scientist for now "That weapon's too powerful, might collapse the cliff walls around us if we hit them too many times."

Mordin nodded "Ah… right, underestimated power of Coalition Infantry heavy weapons…" He packed the weapon back up quickly before slotting it back into his back storage slots and grabbing his SMGs instead.

The crew, working together, managed to down the Blue Suns troops before they could take out more than a couple over-shields with their concentrated fire. Using shooting, blasting, burning, bludgeoning and ramming, the team got into the dig site to be met with a contingent of Blue Suns Troopers. As for the enclosed spaces… well, Tali would have turned it into a blast furnace if not for fear of collapsing the facility. Instead, they turned the hallway into a meat grinder with Shockwaves and of course good old fashioned Phasic, "Sonic Pulse", Laser and Gauss fire. Since the Coalition troops' shields were overwhelmingly powerful, the Blue Suns had no chance, with their diluted firepower, to overcome the Marines.

Tali dropped down next to the two personal lockers after the hostiles were down as per doctrine, hacking into them and drawing funds, knowing Shepard's modus operandi would have directed one of them to do it anyways. They moved onto the next room, where the Quarian cracked another locker for a surprisingly large sum of credits. A few ramps and empty hallways later, they came to a large room where the Blue Suns had apparently been preparing for a stand. Shepard's first LBR Overcharge bolt merely took out the Blue Suns Commander's shields, prompting him to duck behind his cover as the other troops came up and started thundering away with their K-12 Punishers, Gauss Rifles and P-38 SMGs. Despite the Commander no longer being in action, another Lockdown round managed to deliver quite a disruption to Shepard's over-shield and drained more than half of the protective bubble in one hit, from a human Blue Suns merc, apparently wearing Lieutenant Armour.

He was first to die, Samara using her Charge ability to send him flying out from behind cover before grabbing him with a mass effect field and slamming him against a solid wall, right in front of Grunt. Needless to say, a couple good blasts from the Sonic Pulse Shotgun reduced the man to an oozing mess.

"Samara, Shockwaves to take them off their feet, Tali, Area Sabotage, Mordin, keep them at a safe distance, Grunt, be ready to charge them with me."

The three specialists did as they were ordered while the Krogan responded with "Got it, Shepard… about time we did something crazy."

Shepard hummed affirmative before he vaulted over his cover, followed by Grunt. True, Sabotage was less effective against Raider Industries goods than typical stock Citadel Space gear, but the tech attack still worked with the vastly overwhelming tech abilities Tali's armour supported. Samara's Shockwave was as reliable as ever in throwing the enemies about everywhere as Grunt and Shepard charged while Mordin kept up the suppressive fire (his dual SMGs provided better coverage than the single weapons of the specialists).

The two soldiers crashed through the Blue Suns line like an ACU running through a piece of string, turning to their sides and blasting down the mercs with massed firepower against their inferior armour that ensured they didn't have enough time to use their somewhat less inadequate weapons to do enough damage.

"That was fun… when do we get to do it again?" Grunt shouted once he and Shepard finished off the mercs.

"Soon, Grunt, soon." Shepard said as he read a PDA and raised his eyebrows at the information on it… then opened up the last door to a room with a Prothean pyramid and a Prothean video log.

* * *

"Blue Suns again… why do I have a feeling we'll be bumping into them a lot in the next few days?" Shepard mumbled to himself as the cloaked Normandy approached the derelict freighter, Samara, Tali, Grunt and Jack with him this time, since in-close firepower would be crucial, as opposed to the support capabilities Garrus and Mordin offered with their heavy weapons.

The break-in was simple and stealthy, the mercs hanging around in the cargo bay of the Strontium Mule never saw them coming, the squad cut down the Legionnaire before he could react, and then started gunning for the Heavies and then the Troopers. Needless to say, a lot of the Suns were thrown around by biotics from Jack and Samara, mostly by use of Shockwave.

After they climbed a set of stairs, they found a console indicating the airlocks were sealed, in other words, nothing of interest, other than the PDA they found along the way that indicated the Blue Suns had set the whole thing up as a trap. Shepard was considering putting in a request for open war against the mercenaries by Coalition Marines, but thought better of it.

At the next landing, they turned to confront some hostiles their Omni had picked up, once they were cooling piles of half-vaporized flesh, they unlocked the doors leading from the central room. Sheppard looked at the three doors "Center one first?"

"Whatever, let's go!" Jack spoke up.

The Engine Room was a slow fight since the Blue Suns actually had cover, but once said cover was whittled down by liberal application of weapons fire, it wasn't a problem, though Grunt had to be prevented from losing patience by a Gauss Rifle round sparking off his armour's structural fields. He'd lost OS and shields due to standing out in the Disruptor Ammo fire for a bit too long before Shepard yanked him back behind cover when the alert came up on his HUD Squad Panel.

They eventually finished searching the area and moved up the two doors to the back of the ship, the left side door was locked but there were no signatures of any sort there, so they wouldn't be hacking it, the door on the right was the mess hall with two troopers and what was left of the original crew's corpses, apparently packed in body bags.

Shepard shot the troopers himself with extreme prejudice, kneecapping them before shooting them in the crotch before they could even raise their weapons, thanks to the augmentations humans had since the Quantum Age kicking in. He let them writhe around a bit before shooting them in the chest with his LBR. "You hijack a ship, you pay the price." He snarled before kicking the corpses in spite and marching out "Let's go, the crew's all dead, shoot any Suns you see on this ship, no mercy." He growled. Not even Samara commented about the wording looking at the extremely distorted body bags and huge blood splatters all over the mess hall, though Grunt grinned at it.

They hacked through the console to unlock the bridge door and battered through into the room, Tali immediately deploying an Area Overload pulse to batter away at the shields of the Blue Suns. Samara and Jack started throwing out Shockwaves and Warps toward the targets, sending them flying and/or writhing in pain as their armour started disintegrating. The whole squad handled the firepower aspect of things, blasting away at the Blue Suns and their cover, popping shield bubbles and armour quickly and effectively, though they themselves still needed to take cover from the C-10s' Lockdown Munitions, since those were effectively shield disruptor rounds against Coalition shields.

The moment all the Blue Suns were down the squad turned to face new hostile contacts they'd picked up approaching behind them, two waves of mechs coming before the squad charged into the corridor to deal with the other set of Blue Suns. Once they were down in pieces, Shepard grabbed the necessary codes to access the cargo and they disembarked the completely cleared ship before blowing it to bits with the Normandy's Dual Plasma Beams and Medium Oblivion Cannons.

* * *

After going around chatting with his crew, Shepard got an e-mail from Cybran Nation High Command that read "We've started going through that intel—fine work, by the way—and we've discovered the location of the base where the Strontium Mule fell into the Blue Suns' trap. The Blue Suns are indeed using false distress signals to lure merchant freighters near their base with the intent of capturing and raiding those vessels. If you can get there and shut down their beacon, it'll save a lot of merchants a lot of distress. It'll also strike a blow to the Blue Suns as a whole. The base is on a planet called Sanctum. We've uploaded coordinates to the Normandy, good hunting."

Shepard nodded to himself before calling into his comm. "Joker, set course for Sanctum, it's time to blot out the sun…"

* * *

Tali, Grunt, Jacob and Miranda would be coming on this expedition with Shepard, Shepard instructing the black man to bring along a Temporal Fizz Launcher "In case I'm busy using my Nanodarts and we need to slow down the enemy."

"Everyone got the plan?" Shepard asked, looking toward his squad members.

"I would like to think saying it once would be enough, Shepard, considering its simplicity." Grunt said, checking his shotgun. "Run through it again if you like."

Shepard glared at the Krogan in annoyance and wondered when Joker had taught the young Krogan sarcasm… "We go in, kill the mercs, loot whatever we can in credits, then we get out and the Revenant the Normandy carries around on the hull turns it into a crater from orbit."

"There we go, now wasn't that pointless repetition…" Grunt mumbled as they stood and walked into the restorer's spacious airlock before it opened, the gunship hovering far above the valley where the Suns were, and the crew jumped, using their QP Packs to dampen the impacts with the ground as they landed in front of the facility and the Blue Suns already ready to meet them, due to the shadow the Restorer had cast over the area just now. The Krogan grinned widely as he brought his shotgun to bear on the first merc's cover. "Time for a fight…" The cover shattered after the second hit with the large amount of harmonic resonance destabilizing the crystalline structure and shattering it. Then the merc's shields turned away one shot… only one.

While that merc was busy exploding into a pile of half-jellified sludge after his armour shattered with two more shots, Shepard, Miranda and Jacob were busy laying down fire while Tali was draining the mercs' shields with an Area Overload, not that there was much to drain anyways, and of course liberal application of weapons fire. A pair of K-12 hits to her over-shield drained the somewhat damaged bubble and a volley of Disruptor Ammo from the Troopers shaved the Quarian's personal shield down by a full fifth before she ducked behind cover. But it was only for a moment so the mercs would divert their attentions elsewhere before she rose again and continued firing, blasting through another merc with her shotgun and making the woman's body explode messily.

They were quickly racking up kills and, once the immediate area was clear, advanced toward the door of the accursed facility. En route they reclaimed the crate of Iridium to ensure no mercenary salvage operations could make use of it, though the Normandy wouldn't need it, they could always sell for credits in Citadel Space. After Tali hacked her way through the door, Shepard made a choice "Everyone, activate Cloaking!" He called, it could be picked up by Coalition "Radar", which was an inaccurate term for the sensors, but was invisible across most of the EM Spectrum and barely detectable across the rest. It also consumed a lot of energy, so that the suits' energy reserves would be continuously going down when it was used.

The five-person crew vanished into thin air as they walked into the facility, noting the mass of red contacts their HUDs designated up ahead and below them on another level. Shepard snorted inside his helmet before issuing a simple order "Volley Electron Grenades boys, let them have it!"

The ensuing waves of explosions rocked the facility as dozens of Electron Grenades went off in sync, frying every piece of non-hardened electronics in the room and damaging anything not Coalition-grade hardened. Of course, the merc were busy painting the walls after the grenades went off, too busy to try to slow down the squad strolling down the ramp to raid the area for goodies. Grunt was rather vocally complaining to Shepard's back as the commander hacked into a wall safe for credits "That was no fun, we killed them too fast!"

Miranda took over the talking since Shepard was busy "Shepard's busy right now, so I guess I'll have to explain to you, it's better to take out an enemy quickly and efficiently than to give him a chance to shoot back."

The Krogan grunted "Huh… an acceptable response, but if we want to do things quickly and efficiently why isn't the Quarian doing the hacking? We all know she's a lot faster than Shepard is." Grunt grinned and crossed his arms over his chest triumphantly as if to emphasize his point.

"Because I won't be on every mission of Shepard's, that's why, and he's practicing his own skills." The Quarian in question spoke up from where she was standing around doing nothing.

"Apparently someone expanded a mining tunnel into the mess hall, so the facility was closed… now we've figured out what all those hostiles on Tali's longer-range Omni are… let's go put them down."

* * *

"That… is a pain in the butt." Tali commented as she used AI Hack AGAIN on one YMIR while Shepard and co were helping it whittle down the other one, slowly, since heavy weapons weren't an option in these mining tunnels.

Joker came over the comm. with a confused tone "Which part thereof? It's a pretty big area…"

"I have a flamethrower, Joker. Do you really want the crew to get a taste of roast pilot?" Tali growled while administering more hacking algorithms to counteract the constant refreshing of the YMIR's systems. Raider Industries built their gear well…

Joker's next transmission sounded properly frightened "Shutting up now."

It took a while before the YMIRs finally went down and the squad cloaked and advanced on the Blue Suns, taking them completely by surprise as they started dying for no apparent reason from close-range shots. Firing wildly around revealed the squad, or at least their over-shields, and they started coming under fire, but Shepard still ordered "Shields will hold, press the attack!" as he bowled over and began beating in the head of the Blue Suns commander. The ensuing battle was quick and bloody, and, true to Shepard's words, the squad's shields held, but the mercs' didn't.

After bypassing a whole bunch of doors and safes for money and minerals (resulting in some grumbling from Grunt) they found the transmitter in a room off the hangar bay of the Blue Suns Base. "Huh, not much of interest around here." Jacob commented as they read on how the operation was set up. "Let's leave and blow this place with the Normandy."

"Agreed, Jacob, let's get moving… Joker, bring the Restorer over." They walked into the airlock of the landed white and green T3 AA Gunship before it cycled and they lifted off, docking back with the Normandy minutes later.

* * *

The Normandy's Quantum Propulsion Drive spun the 400-meter ship about its bow-stern axis so that the planet was off one broadside, and the three Medium Oblivion Cannons on the rear section of the top side, on the main superstructure portion, could swivel to train themselves at the target. The two Dual Plasma Beam turrets on the foredeck, one behind and above the other, also swung about to aim at the target. All five of the weapons fired in sync, the Plasma Beams slashing through the atmosphere first and gouging holes into the facility while the three Medium Oblivion Cannon pulses fell toward the planet, partly guided by the warhead guidance packages included in the plasma balls. They were far slower, even with the adjustments needed to make them viable for space combat, than the beams, but still slammed solidly into the target area, utterly obliterating it with many kilotons TNT equivalent in the space of a few instants.

On the Normandy's Crew Deck, Shepard nodded in satisfaction as Joker reported the base had been annihilated. He himself was proceeding toward the Starboard Observation Deck to talk to a certain Asari Justicar. "Good job, Joker. Now jump us to the outer system and hold position there."

"Aye, Commander." The helmsman closed the channel.

Shepard shut down his chest-projected holo-console before opening the door to Forward Starboard Observation. Samara was not in her usual place, and so Shepard looked around before spotting her sitting in front of one of the consoles in the room, reading some information, apparently.

"Shepard." The Justicar greeted, turning away from the displayed text.

"What do you think of our mission so far?"

She shrugged "We are doing things more thoroughly than even I did previously, though I suspect the Normandy's ability to jump to targets faster than any ship in Council Space, other than using Mass Relays, has something to do with it." Shepard nodded in agreement and she went on "I also found your declaration of no mercy on the Strontium Mule peculiar considering your usual 'Paragon' as some called it, tendencies and need to save everything that can possibly be saved as well as some things which cannot be."

John Shepard's eyes blazed as he recalled the events "You know those body bags and the blood splatters on the walls?" Samara nodded "I remember those from Mindoir, when the slavers attacked and before we'd established more effective colonial garrison strategies, they were taking and killing people like cattle… I shot every single Batarian I saw that day, and I have hated people who kill for pleasure ever since then. You know how those stupid movies always go 'Don't turn into what you're fighting'? Well, some people don't deserve second chances, Samara. You know Dr. Saleon's case, which was broadcasted a couple years ago?" She nodded again "Me, Liara and Wrex spent over two hours beating him to a pulp before we stuffed him to a stasis pod and took him to Rakhana. It's the only sort of justice a lot of people will ever see, fortunately, we had him put on trial, convicted, his crimes broadcast, and executed by giving the family members of his victims salt crystal needles to stab him with. Some people need to be made an example of." Shepard panted for a bit after his rant before regaining his composure "Is there anything else you wanted to know, maybe about the Coalition?"

She blinked for a bit. _Okay then…_ she thought, before she frowned slightly "I have been meaning to ask, Shepard, why it is that in current Coalition slang and youth, the popular things are all remakes of that which existed roughly 1800 years ago, in the early Electronic Age of your kind?"

A look of understanding dawned upon Shepard "Ah… I was expecting that to come up soon, with all the video game quotes the crew uses… it is mostly a matter of going back to the classics and the good old tolerant values as opposed to the segregation and hatred of the Infinite War and Seraphim War. The youth of my generation didn't see the war firsthand, and those who did have so ingrained us with warnings and prompts, as well as opportunities, for us to embrace unity and the old values of tolerance that, well, video game remakes have become immensely popular, especially the classics of the various genres, hell, World of WarCraft, the remade version, has become the second-highest ranked MMORPG in the Galaxy, right after Galaxy of Fantasy."

Samara pursed her lips "An odd logic, but understandable…"

"Anything else? Maybe the data you have on the criminal turned up something? It's not like we have anything really better to do when we're busy waiting around for the next clue in this quest to come along…" His brow furrowed "What do you think about me taking my first adventure with the crew and turning it into a video game? Maybe I'd call it Mass Effect or something similar…"

Samara's brow was up "That was… rather random, but Shepard, remember that if it's too accurate to real events it'll just be a rail shooter…"

Shepard stroked his chin "Huh, true, but I could change things up, maybe set it in twenty-one eighty… three? Five? Make the missions more difficult, with crappier gear on both sides? Dramatize some aspects? Maybe make Virmire more complicated and giving a choice of saving Ash or Kaidan? Make the player character customizable except last name?"

Samara was wondering if this sort of randomness was normal for the Commander or whether or not she should go fetch Dr. Chakwas, who at seventy was the oldest of the crew other than herself, and was still considered fairly young by Coalition standards (no one really knew how long humans would live without the pressures of war, but few were currently over a hundred fifty or so). "Shepard, are you sure you're all right?"

Shepard snapped out of his reverie "Huh? Oh, I'm fine." He waved it off as he walked out of the room, mumbling "could ask Aunt Jane" his mother's younger sister "To voice a female Shepard and also provide the default appearance, use me and James for the male appearance and voice… hmm…make romance optional and some other options be open to the player… that could work."

The Asari Justicar was for one of the few times in her nearly 1500 years of life highly disturbed, to the point of rubbing her eyes and staring at the door after Shepard left the room as if trying to prove to herself that what she thought she'd heard actually happened. _Maybe letting the body rest while meditating has negative side-effects after all… maybe I should consider getting into the habit of plain old sleeping again…_ The old, old woman (though she didn't look it) shook her head as she shut down the console window and then the console itself, looking over to the large, comfortable bed that the room had come with after it had been designated her quarters. She highly doubted it was there when it was an Observation Deck, but she chose not to worry herself over the issue of nanolathing and the implications it carried for the Citadel Races.

* * *

_CSC Normandy, January 12, 3871_

EDI started telling Shepard exactly why she woke him up from his half-asleep state as he grumbled and started assembling his armour and called the team to action "Scans detect a non-Coalition human colony on Watson defended by a modified Serpentine Tactical Missile Launcher purchased from the Coalition. A distress signal indicates the installation is compromised by Batarians who have launched the two missiles the launcher structure shipped with at the colony site in ICBM mode." That was one firing mode of TMLs and Strategic Missile Launchers, though it made the missiles vulnerable to AA fire, Tactical Missiles were not durable enough to take good AA fire while Strategic Missiles weren't very durable in ICBM mode and took far too long to get anywhere really far. "Total destruction of colony is imminent. Zero probability of survivors if missiles strike."

"Grunt, Jack, Samara, Tali, meet me in the cargo bay, we need to get to the Restorer and go find the kill codes in the missile base!" Shepard called urgently. The area in question was in the middle of a Quantum Depression, which meant Quantum Jump without a nearby reference gate was not very accurate, so they had to go in by Warp (courtesy of Koprulu Sector tech) and hope the Normandy could get in position at the right time to employ its Zapper TMDs. He was bringing his heavy-hitters and best tech specialist; after all, speed would matter here if the Normandy couldn't find the missiles… _curse Serpentines! The damned things have zigzagging missiles!_ He mentally growled.

The Normandy exited Warp near the installation and the Restorer left it, then the ship boosted to high sub-light speed and began searching along the most likely line to the colony for the missiles, if it came down to it, they'd park the ship right over the colony if they had to.

* * *

_Franklin, January 12, 3871_

"Looks like there was a fight here." Tali commented, shifting her grip on her flamethrower slightly, looking at the corpses at the turn before she rounded the corner first and began literally firing, melting her way through two Batarian Troopers' armour as Shepard himself grabbed the head of one and wrenched it clear off after punching the Batarian so hard the neck broke.

"Curse you four-eyed motherfuckers!" Shepard roared as he booted the last Trooper in the crotch so hard the ceramic armour shattered and the metal behind it warped under the strength of the kick just before John roundhouse kicked the four-eyed bastard's head off. They turned back from the pathetic ambush attempt and Tali began hacking into the door while Shepard was cursing darkly under his breath "son of a bitches couldn't even let me get some sleep, can't let the non-Coalition colonies get more than a couple moths of peace… fuckers gonna pay, motherfuckers gonna pay for this boys…" (A/N: Tom Clancy Quote from Executive Orders)

The whole crew spilled into the room and started shooting, Shepard roaring and pointing toward the central, elevated platform "Shockwaves on platform NOW!" He shot another Batarian Heavy through the head with his Laser battle Rifle, firing one-handed at the scum to the right while still pointing as the unstable mass effect fields rippled their way toward the platform ad started blasting the enemies on it about helplessly. Shepard gripped his Gauss LMG with his other hand and yanked the still-extended weapons off his back where he'd slung it, firing single-handedly at the Batarians flying into the air from the Shockwaves. His bullets punched into and through them with hypersonic vengeance as he roared a primal war cry.

"Almost sounds Krogan." Grunt remarked as the squad, spearheaded by Shepard, who was dual-wielding his assault weapons, charged the Batarian line and broke through with the ease of a Yolona Oss wiping out a Mole T1 Land Scout. He started blasting the nearest Batarian's head in while he smashed another one repeatedly against the ground, head-first.

"Indeed, and he sounds scarier than many Krogan I have come across in my long years." Samara remarked while she crushed three Batarians with a Shockwave and sent another one flying apart with a Throw to his legs and a Pull to his head.

Jack was cackling while she threw Shockwaves about, literally drawing rippling lines of blue-white explosions in the room wherever her hand pointed while her other hand blasted away with her shotgun, when she noticed what the Quarian next to her was doing against the hordes that tried to swarm and overwhelm the five squad members "Tali, practicing your skills for the next barbeque?"

"Yes, roasted pirate does have its appeal, however I prefer charcoal, more useful than these pirates will ever be anyways." Indeed, Tali, on the wing of the spearhead, was leaving behind a trail of charcoaled corpses on her side with liberal use of the Thermite and white phosphorus laced napalm.

The squad kept shooting into the inferno they were creating in front of them until they collectively noticed there weren't any hostiles left in the room. Shepard blinked, noting the low shield reading every member of the team had, before ordering "Tali, bypass the door."

There was only two minutes left on the countdown until missile impact time, so Tali had to hurry, fortunately for the group, she was an expert hacker, since the door was included in the structural fields of the building and would take an absurdly hard time to break down with weapons. If the fields fell, the building would count as destroyed and then the kill codes wouldn't work anyways.

They found a lone Batarian Commander inside the control room, the man promptly disintegrated under a massive torrent of weapons fire and biotics as the team collectively opened up. The crew ran by the large smear on the ground toward the console, Shepard being first to get there and begin hacking in for kill codes, which required someone familiar with them, fortunately, he'd studied how to mind-hack Aeon systems before…

"There is only one kill switch code left, Shepard, we've confirmed the two missiles are headed for the spaceport and residential district respectively, we are headed there but there is a high chance we won't get there in time… it was fired on a slingshot course around the planet, we weren't expecting it…" EDI trialled off "Your choice, Commander."

Shepard raised his eyebrows "Is there a choice? Save the residential district, the spaceport can take the risk."

* * *

One Serpentine Tactical Missile self-destructed in mid-air, its energies being allowed to vent nearly harmlessly… other than the sadly roasted birds that had been in the vicinity. The other continued on, unfazed, toward its target. The plasma resonance warhead was primed for detonation…

* * *

Joker had the Normandy under full throttle considering it was in-atmosphere and a huge ship like his wasn't very manoeuvrable. The active camo and stealth systems of the Tactical Missiles meant they had to close range for the Zappers to work, and the engines weren't giving him enough… "EDI, we need to move faster."

For the first time, EDI displayed emotion in the form of a voice that sounded as if it had come from gritted teeth, yet was still quite feminine "I am aware of that, Jeff. But I can't accelerate us any faster, the Normandy isn't built for high lateral speed atmospheric manoeuvres, and putting our engines at full power will probably fry all the electronics in the residential district beneath us! Not all electronics are as hardened as Coalition stuff!"

"Fine, all hands brace for warp jump!" The best thing about Warp jump was that it didn't leave an EMP, and the shockwave from this height would be only a gust of wind and a loud rumbling by the time it reached the ground, as well as some warm air. So, Joker plotted a short-distance hop "Jumping in ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one, JUMP!" He hit the activation button and the Normandy suddenly blotted out the sun over the spaceport, causing sudden panic in the sky car traffic below, which Joker paid no heed to as he put his ship between the missile and the spaceport, ready to intercept it with his shields if need be.

* * *

A Zapper TMD laser burnt through the casing and detonated the missile harmlessly in mid-flight, causing only a large ripple and small corona of superheated air where the missile had been. True, it wouldn't have made much of a dent in the Normandy's shields, but this was an easier way to do it, as well as less over-dramatized or damaging, since the splash damage from the blast could have severely harmed the civilian aerial traffic, after all, not everything had Coalition-grade protections.

Once the threat boards were cleared, the Normandy boosted itself upward at a relatively slow speed until it was high enough, then it cranked its engines up to full and roared out toward space. It met up with the Restorer and the smaller craft docked to it before it entered Warp jump again and left the system behind.

* * *

_Mess Hall, CSC Normandy, January 13, 3871_

Shepard had just gotten his breakfast when someone called "Shepard!" and waved him over to her table.

"Hey Jedore." He called back, walking over and sitting across from the blonde woman.

"Listen, I'm sorry if I seemed a bit overwhelming the last time we talked, in my quarters…" Jedore rolled her eyes "Anyways, why didn't you bring me against the Blue Suns? You wanted heavy-hitters for the last mission with the missiles, didn't you? That generally means Soldier classification, or Soldier with some Tech… that's me, why else do you think I had tech armour when we first met? I might not use it anymore since Coalition stuff is just so good, but still…"

Shepard was silent for a long moment as he fiddled with the breakfast stir-fry with his chopsticks "You used to be Blue Suns, they might have been your friends, I don't like forcing people to go against their friends."

Jedore scowled "The moment they started hijacking freighters with fake distress signals, even if they had been my friends, they became my enemies, I've fought for long enough to understand that, Shepard, and I hold on to my morals. I signed up with the Blue Suns to do some honest private security work, not to fire missiles at human colonies!"

"I understand, Jedore, I\m sorry, but I felt it would be good for Grunt to get out some more, since I was bringing you so much more often than him, I was a bit worried he might get agitated…"

Jedore suddenly smiled widely and threw her arms up in the air "Hallelujah he comes up with a reasonable explanation! It's alright, soldier boy, I'm not that annoying, but remember, if we ever end up fighting Eclipse again, or you want an ACU match, my door is always open." She stood and walked off, winking over her shoulder at Shepard as she left, though she frowned once she reached and was waiting for the elevator, thinking _What was that wink for?_

Shepard frowned and tilted his head, _What was that wink for?_ He thought as he continued eating breakfast.

Kelly looked upon the situation with a critical eye from where she was sitting, eating her own food. _Jedore's hips are swaying slightly as she walks, not normal behaviour for her, most likely due to Shepard's presence, hmm, this could be interesting._ Tracing his muscles, visible even with his shirt, with her eyes, she suddenly felt an irrational urge to head over there and stake her claim to the man… _No, you are an Aeon girl, act it, don't succumb to these irrational bursts of jealousy, plan in the long term, you can out-compete that UEF woman, Kelly, you just need to plan for it and fight aggressively, starting… now._

Shepard was looking around at his crew when he was suddenly presented with the green and white outfit of Kelly effectively in front of his face when he turned around. Needless to say, he blinked in surprise at was effectively crotch level before she sat down, abruptly changing the view to her bust before he finally reacted and looked up at her eyes "Yes, Kelly, what can I do for you?" _Damn, Shepard, what is wrong with you today? Oh yeah, that's right, the last op interrupted your sleep and it took a while to get back to sleep after the excitement, you're too tired to immediately react and snap to eyes._

Kelly mentally shivered at the strength and authority in his voice and the warmth in tone and eyes. She leaned forward slightly, propping her elbows on the table, thinking _I don't know, maybe a date?_ "I just wanted to talk, how have you been, Shepard?"

The man shrugged "I've been better, what do you think of the mission, Kelly?"

Kelly smiled "With you here, it'll be simple to deal with, Shepard, but what about you personally, Shepard? I want to get to know more about you…" She interlaced her fingers before propping her chin on them.

"What's there to know? Mom and my father had a romance during the Seraphim War, and then Mom got pregnant with me and James, and before we were born our father went off and got himself killed fighting Order and Seraphim Imperium Commanders." Shepard's voice lowered, sounding like he was talking to himself "Dumbass still had that Order Templar Code affecting his judgement."

Kelly's eyes widened "Your father was an Order Templar? But that's like…"

"Yeah, and we all know what happened to them, once they found out how corrupt the Order was they turned over to the Loyalist side, the ones that managed to fight their way out of Order Space, at least."

Kelly nodded "No wonder why you like checking in with Samara in your spare time…"

"Yeah, I'm trying to defrost her, just like Grand Crusader Ariel Williams had to defrost my father before Mom had a chance to advance on him." Sheppard grinned "I know, sounds like pretty much every high school soap opera there is, but we're not in that age group anymore."

Kelly smiled before tucking some of her reddish-orange hair behind her ears "Right…"

Shepard tilted his head and blinked at her hair "You know, I always thought it was more of a Cybran colour, you're Aeon, how did you get red hair?"

Kelly was getting a warm and fuzzy feeling from the way Shepard was looking at her with his big brown eyes, they seemed like seas of chocolate to her, seas she would be elated to drown in. She squeezed her legs together and shifted her hips slightly at the sudden warmth in her lower belly, generated simply by the thought of immersing herself in his presence. "Well, I guess I just happened to get the right assortment of genes from my parents, hell, my older sister's the stereotype of red hair, green eyes, and of course she gets irritated whenever people assume she's dub just because she has a much larger bust than I do." Kelly held her hands about twenty-five centimetres away from her chest as if to make a point.

Shepard chuckled, that sort of size was very unlikely, even for Aeon women, who on average tended to be slightly larger in bust size "Is she the one who opened a dog shelter?"

"Yeah, after the Coalition formed, Annika handed off the shelter to our brother and started working as a teacher, though she chose a secondary school, despite knowing that her appearance would get her looked at as a sex object. It is well-known that thinking about women as sex objects usually gets your ass kicked or your balls punished by psionic and/or biotic abilities, but boys are stupid enough to do it anyways." Kelly shook her head, smiling "Anyways, she met her current husband something like eight years back, she was teaching at the same school I was going to, I was what, Grade ten? Eleven? Oh, remember that Aeon and UEF education is a bit slower than Cybran… so we were on a careers trip to the CGC and she volunteered to come along and help supervise us, so that was when they met for the first time." Kelly leaned back "Anyways, she and Dom hit it off right away, they were friends within a day, and spent a whole lot of time talking, joking, exchanging stories, and discussing things together in their spare time for the next couple years, then Ivan, Ivan Brackman, can you believe it? Oh, and Thalia KAEL of all people, contacted me, said they were tired of letting nature run its course and starting to get annoyed at Dom's virgin jokes… Surprisingly, none of the three, in their partnership and drive to get to the top, had ever gotten laid before."

Shepard was thinking that this seemed to be an astoundingly interlaced story with the way everything was tying back upon itself, sure, he knew which three commanders Kelly was talking about. Uncle Seth had brought them around once when visiting, since they were usually under his wing, having achieved high enough to apprentice under one of the Elite Four Commanders. But for one of them to incidentally be brother-in-law of his bubbly, happy-go-lucky, cheek-pinch (facial cheek) adorable, squeal-worthy cute (as in "Aw… it's so cute!" and then a hair-ruffle) Yeoman… this couldn't be a coincidence. "Go on, Kelly."

"Anyways, within a couple months Annika had gotten the point and started the relationship, her being almost double his age may have helped her avoid acting like a love-struck teenager." Kelly rolled her eyes "So, less than a month after that, Ivan called me over to the four-bedroom Shore Leave Apartment they usually lived in when not on active duty in the CGC…"

* * *

A/N: REMEMBER, HUMAN LIFESPANS ARE A WHOLE LOT LONGER THAN BEFORE, SO ANY AGE BETWEEN 20 to… undefined (the eldest human to live so far other than Brackman died from collateral damage of war) MEANS NO DIFFERENCE IN PHYSICAL APPEARANCE!

* * *

START FLASHBACK

_Apartment Block near Central Gate Complex, Procyon, 3865_

Kelly Chambers was leaning on her fellow Aeon's left shoulder while said fellow Aeon had her hands resting on the shoulders of the Cybran who sat at the console, watching the security holo-cam's footage of the living room and hallway carefully. The apartment had four washrooms, one off each bedroom, with the fourth, empty one acting as the guest room. Currently, however, instead of one person per room, the two Aeon women, well, a woman and a girl, plus Ivan Brackman, were excitedly watching Annika Chambers and Dominic Maddox talk over their dinner, having received intel from Kelly that Annika was planning to make a major move tonight, and they all knew what that meant… as Ivan had phrased it "Our Dom is finally going to become a man!"

Of course, Thalia had slapped him about the head right after that, but that was beside the point. They watched as the two finished their food and moved their conversation to the sofa in the living room, Annika sitting in Dominic's lap as had been usual for several months. What wasn't usual was the way they talked only a short time, then she started snuggling into him, squirming slightly in his lap as they both blinked sleepily and simply indulged in each other's scent, judging by the way Dominic's nose was resting on Annika's fiery-red hair.

Annika shifted her body on her boyfriend's some more before looking at him, smiling lazily "That your pistol, Dom?"

Dominic Maddox chuckled nervously "I guess I'm just happy you're here with me."

Annika giggled, and reached up to stroke her boyfriend's face lazily "Relax, Dom, it's good to know you appreciate my body as well as my mind… oh, you reminded me, I had something planned for tonight…" She got up from his lap.

"You're going already?" Dominic got up as well "Want me to walk with you?"

Annika laughed, a tinkling sound, before she dragged Dom into his room.

Kelly groaned in disappointment when they locked the bedroom door and then turned on the soundproofing, but still, there was enough to squeal about, especially since neither of them reappeared in the next twenty minutes. So, Kelly was squealing in joy while Thalia was jumping up and down, also squealing briefly and Ivan was doing a little happy-dance.

"We did it! We did it! We did it!" Thalia whooped happily after she finished squealing, then grabbed Ivan and hugged him tight.

Kelly stopped squealing as she watched Ivan Brackman's face flush red, most likely because of Thalia's well-rounded breasts being squashed against his chest. Kelly was beginning to get ideas on who she could try to put together next… right up until Thalia pulled back and kissed Ivan before letting him go and continuing her happy-dance, doing a little pirouette right as Ivan fell back into the chair in front of the console in shock. Maybe Kelly wouldn't have to do any work after all…

END FLASHBACK

* * *

A/N:MAY DECIDE TO DEVELOP THE ANNIKA-DOMINIC ROMANCE IN A ONE-SHOT IN THE FUTURE. Of course, that'll be after finishing this, actually writing the rest of WorldWar: Supreme Balance (on hiatus since I got tired of writing steamrolls), writing Mass Effect: Galactic Colossus (on exactly how the Coalition-Council negotiations went) and a whole slew of other pieces.

* * *

_CSC Normandy, January 12, 3871_

Kelly pouted once she finished her story "Sadly for my prediction, those two idiots still haven't gotten together, at least, not that I know of."

Shepard finished picking his jaw off the deck after he gaped at the epic fail in Ivan's way with women. If the younger Brackman had as much of a thing for Thalia as the way he looked at her when Uncle Seth and his new crew visited seemed to broadcast to the world "Wow, that's just…"

"Pathetic?"

"Yeah…" They sat there in silence for a moment before Shepard realized something "Oh, I should probably get back to my job of wandering around the ship talking to the crew…"

Kelly nodded and smiled "Bye Shepard, nice talking to you, I'll be back at my station is you need me." A sudden image of Shepard coming in the CIC during the midnight hours, when no one else was there, and wrapping her up in his strong arms, bruising her lips with his and throwing her onto her console's surface or bending her over it came unbidden into Kelly's mind before she shook it off. She stood up and walked off toward the elevator, maybe she'd drop by her room before heading down to the CIC, after all, there was still some time before her duty shift started.

* * *

A/N: There go the Blue Suns assignments and some more background information, plus some talking to Kelly. Also, I changed Annika's last name, but still, it doesn't make a difference, and of course Dominic, Thalia and Ivan will only roughly have the backgrounds they have in SupCom 2, they will undergo completely different events (think, they're taken under the wing of "Uncle Seth", come on!) and most often serve as cameo characters or background support people in this fic string, though I may put them in later fics.

REVIEWS HELP ME WRITE FASTER! (DURING THE PRODUCTION OF THIS CHAPTER, I WAS VERY NEARLY DEMOTIVATED BY THE RELATIVELY SMALL NUMBER OF REVIEWS FOR Ch 17…)


	19. Eclipse And The Wilderness

A/N: For the Record, N7: Javelin Missiles Launched is a ME 2 assignment, or at least the Wiki says so.

Near the 2000-word mark of this I found the Eclipse missions were too easy and short to warrant a full chapter, and so comes the first 1v1 ACU Simulator match…

* * *

Chapter 19: Eclipse And The Wilderness

_CSC Normandy, January 12, 3871_

While Kelly was busy relieving stress in her room, Shepard had gone to talk to Thane in his quarters, which had been modified to simulate the sort of environmental conditions typical of a temperate grassland on Rakhana, similar to Erath temperature norms but more arid, though well within human tolerances. They talked about various things, including Thane's dead wife, religions, the question of whether or not the Drell on Kahje should be allowed to go back to UND (United Nations of Drell) space (Thane said he didn't really mind it), etc. before Shepard left to talk to Garrus. He'd been wondering what happened to Sidonis and the rest of the Turian's crew…

"We've picked up an Eclipse signal from a nearby planet." EDI reported from the PA system.

Talking to Garrus would have to wait "Alright, EDI, tell Joker to plot our course there…"

Joker's voice came over the PA, snickering "Already done, Shepard, all hands brace for Quantum Jump." There wasn't the slight jolt associated with Warp Jump or the subtle vibration of a Slipspace transition, but Quantum Jump tended to produce a feeling many called "Vertigo feeling vertigo." Hence, most people grabbed onto railings and consoles during a jump anyways.

* * *

"Now this is more like it, feet first into hell, Hoorah!" Jedore called as she, Samara, Thane, Tali and Shepard fell feet-first toward the entrance of the mining facility from the Restorer, which had dropped them from mid-air before landing a short distance away, active camouflage online as usual, allowing it to blend in against the sky to most non-Coalition optical sensors.

The five-member squad touched down gently, not even feeling the deceleration as they hit the ground with a series of dull thuds no louder than your average stomp (assuming you are not Krogan). Shepard led the way down into the facility, keeping a tight eye on the HUD Radar and indicators, patched over from Tali's suit since she had better Omni/Radar range. There were hostiles up ahead through a set of door to the right, so he directed his squad to take up positions around it, but…

"Where's Shepard?" Jedore looked about with her green helmet optics in confusion before noticing the little arrow pointing at Shepard on her HUD and taking her left hand off her Phasic shotgun before quickly reapplying the hand to her optics in a facepalm. Apparently the Cybran had gone off to hack a wall cargo computer, again… "If that man ever decides to make this whole mess of an adventure into a video game or movie, I'm not going to be in it… well, maybe a cameo character, but I'll never voice or agree to more than that… if he wants an ex-Blue Suns, he can cast my dad for that, if dad agrees that is…"

The first attack by Eclipse was made up of two Vanguards and three Troopers, plus a small horde of FENRIS mechs. The cyber cats were the biggest problem, since their shielding and armour actually wasn't that bad, and they moved fast, as it was well known, faster targets were harder to hit. Samara's Shockwaves, applied repeatedly, kept them off-balance long enough to shoot them all, and after that, the mercs weren't a problem, especially with three LBRs among the squad members to deal with the Vanguards when they poked their heads out to use their biotics. Tali and Samara were gunning down the Troopers in the meantime. All five team members finished at roughly the same time, since the Troopers were just so much more fragile.

A bypassed door, some crates, another bypassed door, a PDA, a ramp, and another bypassed door later, they came to a massive room that was effectively shootout galore. Coalition infantry "heavy weapons" were out, but the enemy's K-12s, with Disruptor Ammo, sure were not.

"On my mark, Samara, yank those Heavies closer, Thane, nail the Vanguard on the left with an LBR Overcharge shot, Jedore, take the one on the right, Tali, with me, be ready to burn them to dust, well charge their line together, Jedore, you follow, then Samara, thane give us sniper support." Shepard paused as another K-12 missile detonated against his cover, and then yelled "MARK!"

"I'll put them where we need them!" Samara called as the two Eclipse Heavies went flying up and toward the group, to be met with a flurry of fire as Tali and John both fired one-handed as they vaulted their cover, with John shuddering slightly as two Throws from the Vanguard hit his over-shield just before they died.

They charged the enemy line, breaking through their entrenched positions with fire and fury, blazing them down with blue-white fire and yellow Gauss munition tracers, joined by fire and biotics from the crew that followed them in. Any mercs they missed met their end from Thane's LBR, in sniper mode.

Around the corner, they ran straight into some more Eclipse Troopers and Vanguards, resulting in a lot of close-range and even melee combat. Shepard and Jedore were breaking necks whenever they could while lashing out with their weapons, Tali brought out her shotgun, and Samara and Thane were using biotics as well as their SMGs.

Once the new wave of mercs went down, Shepard hacked into the facility's main computer "Says something about the Ter Alan' current location. I officially nickname the ship Turd Alan… let's find out where this cargo ship is." He grabbed his LBR as he saw the new hostiles coming into the edges of Tali's detection range before he started the decryption procedure and stood by the console to make sure it stayed covered with his over-shield.

* * *

"You know, the Ter Alan…" Samara started slowly as she gunned down more mercs.

"What is it, Samara? Damn, a rush from the left, send some fire down that way, Samara!"

The Justicar put down a Shockwave "Already done, anyways, I remember the Ter Alan, it was shipwrecked and investigators reported no survivors… heard the report on Ilium."

"Huh, well there goes that, I was hoping to take Garrus and Mordin out for a mission sometime."

The Justicar grunted agreement as they kept on fighting the waves of mercenaries. Anyone armed with typical citadel weapons or even Raider Industries guns would be out of heat sinks now, but their weapons vented water coolant and had infinite power (and therefore coolant) supply thanks to the quantum cores of their armours.

* * *

"So you're telling me there are five YMIRs and twenty crates." Shepard deadpanned. "And Doc Brackman wants to know what's in those crates that are worth five YMIRs."

EDI bobbed up and down, seemingly shrugging "That's more or less what I'm saying."

Shepard frowned, since when had EDI started addressing itself as "I"? Maybe Joker was spending too much time flirting and bonding with it, her, or whatever one wanted to address EDI as.

"Huh, and we can't send in the Restorer or any other unit, or we'll end up killing all the crates, right?"

EDI bobbed and rotated slightly as if nodding "Affirmative."

"Well what are we waiting for? Get Tali, Jack, Kasumi, Mordin and Garrus ready for a mission."

"Six people Shepard?" Joker inquired.

"Yes, Joker." Shepard set up the squad channel settings "Alright guys, listen up, Kasumi, Tali, Garrus, keep on hitting them with Overload pulses whenever possible, Mordin and Garrus, go in stealthily and set up on either side of the valley, be ready to nail the mechs in a crossfire. Jack, can you pull what you did on Purgatory again?"

"Shepard, those three YMIRs were Blue Suns owned, not upgraded, and not finished booting their shields. Against Eclipse YMIRs, I can deal with two at once, the other three, you'll have to deal with through normal means, even I can't keep up that level of exertion for too long." They'd all reached the cargo bay by now, and they walked into the boarding

"Alright then, Jack, hit the mechs with warps and Shockwaves whenever possible, and try to keep them from shooting by using Lift, a lot of Lift. I and Kasumi will probably do most of the heavier-duty destruction with our Nanodart Launchers."

* * *

The op started with the squad, who had stealthily crept into their firing positions from the surrounding cliffs, opening up with a volley of Area Overloads, Tomcat Autogun (aka a more portable gauss cannon), Light Plasma Cannon and of course Infantry Nanodart Launcher fire, focusing on two of the mechs, the two not lifted into the air and spun about helplessly, which returned fire with their Gauss Rifles while opening up on the crates with K-12s, destroying one crate each before being torn to scrap by Nanodart fire.

The three being spun about randomly in the air were easy after that. "Shit…" Shepard growled as they tore the last mech apart "We lost three crates."

Jack frowned "Three? Those mechs only destroyed two."

"Does falling on something and killing it count as a kill?" Shepard gestured over to where a YMIR's wreckage had crushed a crate to scrap before its self-destruct detonation killed the crate in question.

The ex-convict's response was one word and a scowl "Fuck."

* * *

Shepard was reviewing the newest e-mail from Coalition Command with Miranda, in her room, feeling thoroughly uncomfortable with the way she was looking at him every once in a while. In fact, he felt almost as if he was a piece of meat under inspection by quality control. Then again, in a way, Miranda had been quality control during his resurrection, and back then he had been a piece of meat.

"'Nice work. We knew Eclipse was hiding valuable cargo on Daratar, but we couldn't land a large strike force without risk of a diplomatic incident. We've wired some Citadel credits into your account. Damn glad to have you with us, Shepard.'" Miranda rolled her eyes "Wow, they need some help in writing e-mails, even I feel kind of used after that e-mail…"

"Agreed, Miranda, agreed." Shepard nodded, looking toward the woman, shifting his eyes from her console, with a tilt of his head. "Miranda, do you have some time?"

Miranda smiled warmly "I always have time for you, Shepard." _Why does this… attraction, or whatever this between us is, just not feel completely right?_ A small part of her questioned before the larger part squashed it absolutely flat with _None of your relationships felt completely right woman, there's no such thing as a perfect relationship!_

"I was thinking maybe we could do a simulator match?" Shepard asked hopefully, he had effectively run out of things to do today, having gone on missions, spent hours in the gym, gone around to talk to the squad members, and done everything except start another awkward conversation, or engage in a simulator battle.

Miranda's face fell from its hopeful grin to more of a disappointed smile "Oh… I was hoping it would be something else, which map do you want to play?"

"The Wilderness, I was hoping."

Miranda nodded "Huh, good balance of land, sea and air combat, alright, so are we both starting on the islands or on the shorelines?" She brought up the relevant program, the more casual version, without the need for a full simulation environment with all the effects. Then she put on her helmet so there was no cheating by looking at the other's screen.

"I was thinking both on the shorelines, and old-style tech trees and factional units." Shepard did the same, sitting across from her and bringing up his own console and helmet, which would give him the information he needed.

Miranda nodded, the nod transmitting to Shepard in the form of a video chat box "Alright… which faction are you playing?"

"Does it matter?" Shepard selected the Cybran logo as his factional choice

Miranda shrugged "Guess not." She chose her usual faction for balanced maps, Aeon. Seraphim was a good faction on mostly-sea maps, since Othuum T3 Siege Tanks, Vishala T2 Air Transports, Uashavoh T2 Destroyers, Ithalua T2 Cruisers, and of course Yathsou T3 Sub Hunters were an extremely potent combination. However, in balanced warfare, Aeon was FAR better at AA, though the flak was still inferior to UEF and Cybran capabilities.

Shepard smiled on her video chat screen "Good luck, Miranda."

She smiled back "Same to you, Shepard."

No more words were exchanged after that as the perfect Aeon went up against Commander John Shepard. The map had been set to 20 km by 20 km as opposed to its true size, and wreckage had been set to the default amounts of one wrecked Salem-class destroyer near the start location of each Commander as opposed to the true state of the area, which was still clogged with the wreckage of broken ships, since all Coalition gear was environmentally friendly and non-toxic, there was no need to reclaim them and return the mass to the environment.

* * *

A/N: STRONGLY recommend bringing up the Supreme Commander Wiki page "The Wilderness" (map) in front of you, RIGHT NOW! OTHERWISE, YOU WILL NOT UNDERSTAND ANYTHING I'M SAYING!

* * *

The first T1 air fleets clashed in the skies over the central islands, while the small Tier 1 fleets of submarines started playing hide and seek in the straits in the middle of the map, between the two tie-shaped islands that sat astride the direct route between Shepard's budding base in the northeast and Miranda's base in the southwest. Conservators and Prowlers met in the air, trading large amounts of energy in the form of weapons fire between the two types of Tier 1 Interceptors, while Shimmer and Zeus-class T1 Attack Bombers continued unerringly by the northern flank flanks of the Interceptor exchange, across one another's paths, toward the base of the enemy. Miranda's northern bomber group and a couple lone Shimmers in the south swept the waterways for T1 Engineers attempting to expand.

In Shepard's case, Jester T1 Light Gunships resolved the issue while his bombers headed for Miranda's base to knock out the one T2 Mass Extractor she had no doubt put up with her starting mass. It was the most intelligent thing to do on a map where inter-Commander distance was greater than about five kilometres (i.e. mad T1 land unit rushing wasn't as great an idea). His bombers were ordered to head around the back of Miranda's base over the mountains, led by a pair of Flying Eyes T1 Air Scouts to guide them.

Miranda's bombers weren't going that way with Shepard's base, instead opting to head south as soon as they hit the coast north of his base, blasting the engineer trying to reclaim the Salem wreck there and the wreck itself to unusable scrap to deny Shepard the mass in that wreck while she herself put up a second T2 Mass Extractor with her own Salem wreck's mass…

Shepard had expected Miranda to have put the one T2 Mass Extractor she could have afforded near the back of her base, not the one in the far back, but he was wrong. He'd destroyed a T1 Mass Extractor far in the rear of Miranda's base and started his bombers moving east while repelling her first bomber strike with Sky Slammer T1 Mobile AA, using micromanaging and the lack of splash damage in Shimmer-class Attack bombers to his advantage in the exchange of Nanodarts and bombs.

A couple Trident-class frigates lent some minor flak support form off his coast, his naval factories having been built in the channel south of his starting landmass. They had taken care of a couple of Shimmer-class bombers on their way north that had been patrolling the island south of his position. Now they were helping deal with the initial harassment force of bombers while his own were wreaking havoc in Miranda's base, targeting the Hydrocarbon Power Plant she had up and destroying it to hamper her power generation and air unit construction. Shepard's own units finished off her initial harassment force just in time to turn their attentions toward a wave of Aurora-class Hover tanks (technically classed as T1 Light Armour) coming over and across the two long islands between them, meeting them with Tridents and stabbing them to pieces at the bottom of the rivers with Proton Cannon fire. His now Tier 2 engineers, now unhampered by the shimmers, proceeded south to expand onto the island there with T2 Mass Extractors while at home construction continued on T2 Power Generators.

Much to his dismay, a pair of of Swift Wind T2 Combat Fighters managed to ambush his patrolling Jesters near the northwest island landmass and sent one of them down before his Prowlers could get there. Sadly for the Prowlers, several Shard-class Attack Boats (Aeon T1 naval AA) got in the way and slashed them to shreds with their Sonic Pulse Batteries.

The battle escalated as Shepard brought his own amphibious units into play while trying to speed up his air factories' upgrading to Tier 3. Wagner T2 Amphibious Tanks disappeared under the waves between the landmasses before they staged an amphibious assault on Miranda's southern beach line, with Bangers brought in by Dragonfly T2 Air transports for anti-aircraft coverage. After all, Corsair Fighter-bombers simply did not match up to Swift Winds favourably, though the Gemini dominated all other aerial AA solutions by virtue of cost, power and speed.

Miranda managed to hit him with a wave of Blaze T2 Assault Tanks (read: Hover Tank) and Ascendant T2 Mobile Flak (which also hovered) at almost the same time he hit her, not expecting such a strike, he was forced to bring out what he'd hoped to use as a surprise, two Salem-class Destroyers and a Siren-class cruiser, in addition to a small fleet of Silver-class Attack Subs surfacing and using their Laser Autoguns against the hover tanks.

His own tanks were encountering similar resistance, though adequate micromanaging managed to keep them reasonably safe from the power of the Oblivion Cannons on the two Exodus-class Destroyers Miranda owned. However, the Beacon-class frigates and the Infinity-class Cruisers were exacting a horrific toll with their Quantum Cannons on the tanks from the waters off the beach. The few Obsidians Miranda had were also tearing his Wagners to ribbons with their own Quantum Cannons, after all, the damned tanks were still more or less cost-effective well into Tier 3.

That task force was lost, Shepard decided, and turned his attention elsewhere, such as his quickly expanding economy needing protection, he began deploying point defence guns all over the place, cursing the fact that the Cybran T2 Point Defence might be firepower-effective (due to rate of fire) but they were NOT high-firepower AT ALL. Hence he was forced to deploy Salem Destroyers under his shields and on land, using their walking capability to his favour.

After a brief peace, of less than fifteen minutes, the two sides of the map, east and west, Shepard and Miranda, clashed again over control of the central two islands, from which T2 Tactical Missile Launchers could strike at the other side's base if on the near island to the enemy. Both side sent Air Scouts into the territory of the other, finding and guiding small strike forces to the T3 Artillery Installations both sides had been starting to build and destroying them, even if Air Crash damage had to be employed to do so (Strategic Bombers or T3 Gunships falling did more damage than one would expect).

Wings of Geminis met and clashed with Coronas over the central islands, with Restorers on Miranda's side hanging back and firing missiles into the fray before they were dragged into the aerial mass of combatants by a squadron of Geminis going after them. Miranda tried to bring them out of it, but the Bangers advancing from the shallower parts of the straits out onto the beaches of the east precluded it in their massively effective AA fire. Bricks, also with the same AA efficiency as Bangers, Loyalists and Harbingers stood ready on opposing shores of the narrow central strait while Serenity T3 Mobile artillery units traded fire with Viper T2 Mobile Missiles Launchers. Shepard had deployed them instead of Trebuchets for the simple reason that the Cybran Nation didn't have a mobile shield generator and though Trebuchet T3 Mobile Artillery fired quickly and didn't take long to deploy, they had far lower accuracy and single-shot damage than Serenities. Trebuchets were better at bombarding bases or massed formations, but in an artillery duel they didn't stand a chance without the sort of shield cover the Cybran couldn't deploy, since any attempt to start an ED1 Shield Generator was met with Restorer fire.

Revenant Strategic Bombers waded their way into the relatively one-sided fight that was going against Shepard's ground units and rained down havoc upon the shield bubbles of the Asylums Miranda had fielded. Corona Air-Superiority Fighters and Restorer AA Gunships alike were either too tied up or too slow to catch up to the speedy bombers that rained hell upon Miranda's battle line of Harbingers and Asylums. The mobile shield generators were toasted, and the four-legged walkers took shield damage just before Shepard's entire line of Bricks and most of his Loyalists waded into the surf of the strait, leaving only a few Loyalists to maintain tactical missile defence.

This was the same TMD ability, limited to only the Loyalist, which had rendered Miranda's Evensong T2 Mobile Missile Launchers little more than sitting ducks existing merely to attract fire and soak up a little damage in the stead of the more valuable units. It wasn't like any other TMD, which would either shoot a missile down or divert it, it was one that would reprogram a missile and send it back to source coordinates, in other words, Miranda had to set her Evensongs to "Hold Fire" while her Serenities did their best to slowly wear down the Loyalists that were assisted by T3 Combat Engineers constantly repairing them.

The slowly recovering line of Harbingers was reinforced by another combat group of Harbingers, plus a few Asylums, just before Shepard's line of Bricks marched out of the water. They opened fire with their Electron Flak upward as soon as the barrels were above water, and fired with their Heavy Disintegrator Pulse Lasers as soon as possible, but not before taking some fire from the Harbingers.

Loyalists scrabbled out of the sea among the larger Armoured Assault Bots and smashed into the enemy line, allowing some of the Evensongs back at Miranda's base to do some of their work for them against her base shields by firing and having their missiles redirected. Loa Tactical missiles from the Vipers were still smashing down among the line of Serenities and Harbingers, but that line was slowly buckling under the horde of Bricks and Loyalists.

Miranda's Omen-class battleships at one end of the straits on her side of things, aka at the northwest end of the western strait, off the shore of her island area, moved south somewhat, beginning to pour Medium Oblivion Cannon fire on Shepard's T3 Armoured and Siege Assault Bots. The land battle was quickly drawing to a close with bombers by Shepard and battleships by Miranda dealing with each other's remaining units, the Serenities having run away long ago toward Miranda's home turf.

Shepard sent some Cormorant T2 Torpedo Bombers after the Serenities, but the local AA from the Infinity-class cruisers was just too strong. As the last Brick bit the dust, the battle over the central islands resumed the stalemate it had been before… until the ground began to shake in both the northern and southern areas of the operational area.

Three Galactic Colossi emerged from the deep areas of the waterways onto Shepard's starting landmass while three Monkeylords advanced on Miranda's initial base, they were met by two Soul Rippers and a CZAR respectively, plus escorting air fleets. Both sets of experimentals lashed away at their destinations' shields mercilessly with their powerful lasers, ignoring or mostly ignoring the fire and fury poured on them from above with one goal and one goal only: To destroy the opposing ACU.

Brick Armoured Assault Bots supported by Viper MML units and Harbinger Heavy Armours supported by Serenity Heavy Mobile Artilleries advanced on the intruders on the two landmasses, thrown away to buy time for a concerted attack… which came in the way of Megalith and Tempest fire respectively from off-shore.

Both Miranda's and Shepard's ACUs had been horrifically damaged by the time the experimentals finally fell, but they repaired and rebuilt their bases and resumed the tempo of war. Using Megaliths, Shepard annihilated the Tempest-class Battleships Miranda fielded before the bots, standing in the water to use their torpedo launchers, succumbed to Solace T3 Torpedo Bomber (the only T3 Torpedo Bomber) runs. Though the Solaces were shot down by massed Bricks, two Megaliths would still take a while to replace, and judging from the pair of CZARs coming toward his base, disgorging Restorer AA Gunships and Shocker Strategic Bombers, Shepard didn't have a while.

What he did have was a large number of Myrmidon T3 SAM installations backed by countless Bangers and Bricks all with their electron flak pointed toward the targets the Omni was reporting. Though their active camo made them effectively invisible, the Soothsayer revealed exactly where they were with its advanced optical scanners, and so the lines of SAM towers and units stood ready.

Shepard seemed to have forgotten the one rule about building SAM turrets: DO NOT LET A CZAR FALL ON YOU! IF NEED BE, BUILD YOUR TURRETS DISPERSED AMONG YOUR DEFENCE LINE TO PREVENT THE PANCAKE EFFECT! The result was that one of the CZARs smashed down on his line of Turrets and units, utterly flattening every unit and severely damaging if not destroying the Myrmidons outright.

Fortunately, a large wing of Geminis came to the rescue by swarming the CZAR and eliminating the threat before the escorting Restorers could fire off enough missiles to take them down. They then turned on and began fighting the Restorers while Shepard struck back at Miranda's production by sending Revenant Strategic Bombers to eliminate a few of her Mass Extractors and blow up some of her factories, all of which were at Tier 3 and busily cranking out units. His own Soul Rippers were undergoing repairs after fending off a sudden attack on his southern island base by Harbingers and Serenities supported by Asylums and Ascendants, which, in conjunction with Infinity-class cruisers, had taken one of his three Soul Rippers down and damaged the other two before being beaten back once the Omen-class battleships had been sent to the bottom of the deep, deep river channels by his Galaxy-class Battlecruisers, supported by Salems, Sirens, and even a Plan B T3 Strategic Missile Submarine, the only one of its unit type to possess torpedo launchers as well as Tactical Missiles Launcher (not the build variety, but much slower-firing than typical MML units or TML installations) and a capacity for building and storing up to three Strategic Missiles.

Shepard was quickly replacing his lost defensive towers and bolstering his south island and extreme southern coastline's defences with new ships and units while Miranda was replacing her losses and fortifying her own positions. A momentary silence lapsed upon the operational area, silent, that is, except for the humming of Power Generators, clanking of Mass Extractors and the movement of units. Vast air fleets spiralled above each commander's controlled territory as both started constructing and fortifying the crap out of Control Nodes to bolster their maximum unit count, and armadas plied the waters, ready for the coming storm…

"STRATEGIC LAUNCH DETECTED." The computer intoned. The excellent regional stealth fields of Strategic Missile Launchers, Subs, and the missiles themselves made the missiles only detectable by visual targeting or closer-range Omni.

A brief pause while Shepard checked his Guardian SMDs later, the computer repeated as the man grinned "STRATEGIC LAUNCH DETECTED." It was time for the perfect Aeon to begin checking on her Patron-class T3 SMDs.

The numbers on both commanders' interfaces next to the current nukes in flight kept racking up as both sides picked up more launch signatures, which were detectable even with the stealth work. Shepard ordered a full-scale push with all his units at the same moment that all Miranda's nukes began descending and being shot down by his SMDs, as were his own nukes. Miranda's units likewise surged forward.

Battleships and Battlecruisers opened up on one another with their long-range cannons at extreme range first, as the armies on land scuttled, rolled or hovered closer toward one another. Huge amounts of destructive potential and mass travelled toward the points between the main bases of the commanders, the northern tip of the tie-shaped island nearer to Shepard and the southern tip of the identical island on Miranda's side (identical due to it being a simulator map).

The squadrons of Air-Superiority Fighters held off from the base patrols, fleets of Strategic Bombers held under the Twilight or Veil-class Stealth Field Generators and battle groups of Torpedo Bombers (much, MUCH larger numbers of the Tier 2 Cormorants than the Tier 3 Solaces) were sent forth from where they had been hidden at the backs of the respective bases. Fleets of Tier 3 gunships, Restorers and Whailers alike, rose into the air and advance on where the fleets would most likely be meeting.

Surprisingly, the first kills were not from the air, land, or fleet units. Instead, it was the epic confrontation of massive submarine fleets near the center of the map, in the relatively narrow strait between the two central islands. On either side of the strait were no-man's-lands littered with destroyed units, the forests that had once grown on the islands utterly sundered, blasted, scorched, and stomped down into the ground by the passage of countless tons of mechanical war machines. In the narrow waters however was a mad confrontation of a large horde of Vesper T2 Sub Hunters, Exodus-class Destroyers and the remaining Sylph-class T1 Attack Subs on Miranda's side. On Shepard's were a pair of Plan B Strategic Missile Submarines, no longer burdened with missiles after firing them off earlier, a multitude of Barracuda-class Sub Hunters, a Flood XR T3 Sonar Installation to provide stealth for the Plan B's, and most importantly a pair of HARMS T3 Torpedo Ambush Arrays.

Miranda's Exodus-class Destroyers had depth charges as well as torpedoes, which put it head, shoulders and breasts (referring to Miranda) above the other destroyers at anti-sub warfare, but against surface targets it left some things to be desired. (A/N: Note that I made it field a Light Oblivion Cannon, 600 damage per shot, 3 sec reload, which is 1 second shorter than the Point Defence, in-game the 1060/shot/5 sec was absurd, a Destroyer with a gun better than one of a Battleship's three guns?) That didn't matter here, as HARMS were the only structure that was always submerged among all the factions.

The starting salvo was fired by the Strategic Missile Submarines, their Loa Tactical Missiles, of the 16-kiloton variety, smashing into the lead Destroyer and severely damaging the Structural Fields, denting and burning armour plating even with the fields absorbing most of the damage, punching a ragged hole through the forward portside plating and giving the ship a slight list as water rushed in before the structural fields readjusted and patched the hole. The water was pushed back outside as the vessel righted itself, though its armour was noticeably thinner, or at least its bulk was slightly smaller, and it was still trialing fire and smoke from where non-essential systems had been cooked off by the large structural field damage and overloading pulses.

Shepard re-targeted his Plan B's to a different target while designating that Destroyer to be the first target of one of his HARMS when the battle would begin. Another Destroyer was hit by dual Loa Missiles and took comparable damage to structural fields as parts burst into flames and smoke billowed out from under some armour portions. That would be the first target of the second HARMs, starting… now.

Nanite Torpedoes rippled outward from the line of submerged units toward the still searching enemy, catching many of them off-guard and sending them to the bottom of the strait. Miranda noted the massive losses she had just taken and diverted a group of Seer-class T3 Spy Planes to fly over the area, revealing the targets in question, which were outside of her bases' Omni range at the south end of the channel while her ships moved in from the north, originally hoping to set up an ambush for Shepard's fleets when the inevitable engagements at the mouths of the straits came.

Harmonic Depth Charges and Chrono Torpedoes answered the next volley of Nanite Torpedoes, and the battle began to grow into a "ground each other to scrap" exchange, since Miranda couldn't spare any Solaces and Shepard couldn't spare any Cormorants from their preparations to face the main fleets of the enemy. Torpedo wakes crossed one another, and Loa Tactical Missiles flew through space just recently occupied by Depth Charges in the mad exchange. Miranda's fleet charged Shepard's position and ships in organized formation, only broken occasionally as submarines went to where they were designed to be—the bottom of the sea—and Destroyers slewed to a halt as they capsized or simply plunged head-first into the waves, never to be seen again.

Shepard's side was also taking large numbers of losses, Barracudas being the most fragile of the T2 Sub Hunters, though the "personal" active stealth and more powerful torpedoes somewhat compensated. The Plan Bs were quickly becoming Plan As, their Nanite Torpedoes, far more powerful than those of Barracudas or Silver-class T1 Attack Subs, tearing gaping holes into Miranda's ships while their relatively powerful structural fields soaked up the damage thrown at them. Well, at least long enough for them to retreat from the front of the battle line and lose their signature records and therefore targeting priority markers in the limits of visual range and use of the Mermaid-class stealth ship to wipe the slates of their radar/sonar signatures clean.

The two lines finally met with a series of resounding crashes as dying Vespers (the Sylphs had been sacrificed as screens long ago) rammed Barracudas and nearly destroyed Barracudas did the same to Vespers. Exoduses were weaving and discharging torpedo defences in a frantic attempt to lose the targeting of the HARMs that seemed to be after them specifically, while at the same time the Destroyers did their best to smash the subs below them to scrap.

That battle continued among evenly-matched sides as the commanders turned their attentions elsewhere, the land armies finally emerging from the surf and clashing on the beaches. The main navies had already begun to engage each other just off the shores of the central islands, right between the two large islands that could have served as Commander Spawn locations and the two mainland Spawn Points they were using for this match. Shepard's Battlecruisers were aggressively eliminating the smaller ships first in a Cull Weakest fire mode, knowing that would knock out the most firepower for the least effort. Miranda was using Engage Strongest, focusing on the big Galaxy-class BCs, since they weren't so tough for the amount of firepower they could throw out.

The air fleets, thought he fastest of units, were actually last to engage, right as land armies that had crossed the straits rushed to assist their brethren fighting near the ends of each tie-shaped island, the air units clashed all along the front. Wings of strategic Bombers and torpedo Bombers lashed away at land and sea targets while Air-Superiority Fighters and assorted Gunships (Experimentals included) ground each other to scrap overhead.

The clash of small ships in the middle of the Op Area, however, outshone the rest with its near-poetic scenario, out-of-control submarines on both sides ramming each other in the murky waters, battering at each other's hulls until they all went down, down, down… The Destroyers were doing their utmost to destroy the HARMS but the submerged buildings' Torpedo Defence was just too good, and there were no Torpedo Bombers on either side to spare from the massive fleet engagements near the ends of the straits, which were far more critical than the skirmish in the middle. The exchange finally ended with the secondary explosions of the last Exodus-class Destroyer cooking off internal systems while the ship rolled slowly, almost leisurely, onto its side before finally sliding sideways into the waves, still in one piece even as it hit the bottom of the straits far below the surface.

The silence didn't last long as the air lit up with trails of engines and missiles alike, the huge air battle having metastasised, supported by dozens of factories and carriers alike cranking out units at alarming rates. Blaze Hover Tanks supported by Asylums and Ascendants advanced under Restorer and Corona cover before Shepard could respond with much, but fortunately for him Siren-class cruisers were by far the best at dealing with any and all surface targets with their Dual Proton Cannons, equal to the cannons of the Salem-class Destroyer, while addressing Air units with their Nanodart Launchers. Shepard had kept a small fleet of them around to supplement the HARMS he had all along his coast, along with Burst Masters and Myrmidons built in the water on flotation platforms.

The Sirens were proving their worth now as they pounded away at the advancing Aeon units, distracting Miranda from his true attack of a force of Bricks with Deceiver support being quietly carted around the north end of the Op Area by a fleet of Dragon Fly transports, kept stealthed by the Deceivers, that met up with and dropped the Bricks near a pair of Mermaid T2 Stealth Boats, needless to say, the Bricks suddenly smashing their way into the northwest base of Miranda's were a nasty surprise, but she had her own surprises in store. A Galactic Colossus, water draining off its structural fields and flowing down its huge, smooth and curved armour plates in rivulets, stomped onto the land near Shepard's own southern base beyond the island spawn point from his start area, escorted by a small number of Harbingers and a horde of Asylums and Ascendants.

A volley of Gunther T2 Artillery Installation and TML-4 T2 Tactical Missile Launcher fire helped soften up the attack force before a group of Revenant T3 Strategic Bombers held in reserve were thrown into action, commencing their bombing runs toward the Colossus that was slowly hacking through into Shepard's southern auxiliary base. The Proton Bombs they carried dropped from the bombers just before they peeled off their attack and began to run back toward the next firebase to throw off the pursuing Corona ASFs. The Proton Bombs, with their extreme splash damage, would be highly efficient against overlapping shields like those which the Asylums were putting up.

In the northwest, the Bricks were blasting their way into the Aeon base, all thirty of them, carving a path through the Oblivion and Erupter Point Defences as well as blowing Miasma T2 Artillery installations to scrap, as well as obliterating any Mass Extractors and Power Generators they came across. They marched right past the gauntlet of a squadron of Restorers that had been held in reserve, trading Electron Flak to the T3 AA Gunships in return for Quad Light Laser fire. Heavy Disintegrator Pulse Lasers fired an almost continuous stream of death and destruction toward the enemy as the forty-meter-tall Armoured Assault Bots kept marching forward, absorbing punishment as they went. They were stopped short by a battle line of Harbinger Heavy Armours that met them in a static slugging match. Shepard realized his largest mistake mere moments after that.

Miranda had a rather large number of Serpentine TMLs in range of her northern base, and since active guidance could be interfered with, they had limited target-seeking abilities and mostly functioned as ballistic cruise missiles. Thus, they were NOT optimal for use against highly mobile armoured targets (i.e. anything faster than a Salem walking on land, which most land units were), but against static targets… Oh, and let's not forget the fact that her Evensongs, the remaining ones, had been reserved since the coming of Loyalists to the field with their missile redirection systems.

Several of his already-damaged Armoured Assault Bots went up in huge explosions as Serpentine Tactical Missiles impacted them. He immediately put the rest into motion, charging the line of Harbingers with the Bricks, hoping for a breakthrough, since a run-by would be impossible as Harbingers were faster than Bricks. Shepard cursed his not fielding any Loyalists in that assault force, if there were any, Miranda would never have fired Tactical Missiles, since they'd have come back to bite her in the ass due to Loyalist TMD capabilities.

The southeast and northwest land battles were resolved in the defenders beating back the attackers while the naval battles around the mouth of the central strait intensified with more battle fleets joining the fight from the shipyard areas Miranda and Shepard owned. Destroyers and Cruisers were sinking in alarming numbers and at extreme frequency while the big guns slugged it out. The scale began to tip as one Galaxy after another broke up under Oblivion Cannon fire, the Battlecruisers' structural fields simply not being enough to balance against the much tougher Battleships, despite the BCs having better guns. However, Miranda was starting to run low on Destroyers and Cruisers, and as everyone knew, a naval battle could in fact be decided by numbers. The Salems and Sirens swarmed the Omens and tore into them while the Battleships and the escorts they had remaining leisurely swatted at the Tier 2 Cybran ships.

Shepard's ships were winning through sheer numbers and flanking manoeuvres (around his island base area) at the southern mouth of the central strait, but Miranda's fleet was overwhelming his with sheer numbers of Omens and Tempests at the northern mouth, pushing his fleet back toward his shipyards. Making a decision, Shepard drew back his ships behind the protective ring of HARMS he owned, which could outrange anything able to strike at them except Torpedo Bombers. Since Miranda had taken to only fielding Solace T3 Torpedo Bombers, which used actual torpedoes instead of the depth charges Skimmer T2 Torpedo Bombers deployed, she wouldn't be able to handle HARMS effectively, as their Torpedo Defence was just too good. Torpedo Bombers didn't turn as fast as, say, Gunships, hence the rather expensive Solaces would run into the lines of Sirens, Burst Masters and Myrmidons a short distance behind the HARMS, out of battleship range (if they didn't want to risk the HARMS) but in range to eliminate bombers that had flown by.

His southern fleets were faring much better against Miranda's, having two Megaliths supporting them instead of one. Miranda's Tempests, Omens and Exoduses were no match for the huge artillery/torpedo walkers as they pushed west, using shallows to keep their guns above water, eliminating Miranda's T2 Torpedo Arrays with long-ranged Proton Cannon fire while Galaxies and other ships cruised by the walkers.

Since her northern fleet couldn't punch through Shepard's line, Miranda took half the fleet, leaving enough to take on Shepard's fleet if need be, and cruised south through the central passage, unleashing a number of Skimmer T2 Torpedo Bombers from her Keefer-class carriers to eliminate the two damaged HARMS in the channel before her ships passed. Shepard had to halt his advance to prepare to deal with the fleet coming at his flank from the north, despite his Gunther T2 Artillery Installations' best efforts, they weren't as accurate as Miasmas, so they didn't manage to hold back the enemy before they sailed in and nearly caught Shepard's fleet in a pincer movement, broken only by the timely arrival of another fleet from the shipyards Shepard owned in the east, a cluster of Salems and Sirens led by a pair of Galaxies and supported under the surface by Barracudas, plus the two Plan B's that had once garrisoned the central strait.

"STRATEGIC LAUNCH DETECTED." The computer announced to Shepard. He had a very good idea where Miranda was shooting, and so his southern fleets broke off from their engagement with the enemy and retreated under the coverage of his island's SMDs. He also checked the Guardian SMD silos guarding his northern shipyards and the fleet that was slowly undergoing repairs.

"Two can play that game." The Commander growled as he checked on his missile silos, it would be another few minutes before they were, all three of them, full, and his last scouting had revealed Miranda to have an excessive number of SMDs, which he wouldn't be able to overwhelm, but her fleets… that would be another matter. He cursed as he saw the nuke icon start descending over his main base before being shot down easily "FUCK! She tricked me!" In the time she'd bought, Miranda's fleet in the south had regrouped and snowballed, and was now advancing on his island base, one of his main bases. Gunthers and TML-4s simply weren't going to cut it, so it was time to break out the big boomstick…

Shepard's only successfully completed Disruptor T3 Artillery Installation swung its angular barrel upward in its usual way of firing, mortar-style, and fired. Some seconds later, it fired again. The Proton Artillery shells passed through Shepard's shields without being affected (shields would always let fire out, but they didn't let fire in) and began to descend after passing well into the stratosphere. If fired in bombardment mode, the gun could reach up to the mesosphere for surface-to-surface shots and fire against low orbit if need be, but the result of bombardment mode was to announce the presence of the gun as well as some of the area around it through the seismic shock pattern and radiation profiles.

Huge explosions blossomed upon the shields of Miranda's naval base. Since no shield generator other than the ED series, and even then only up to ED3, had been developed that could be built on water, Miranda had been relying on Asylum Shield Generators to keep her Tier 3 naval factories and the ships under construction safe.

By the third impact Miranda's waves of Seer T3 Spy Planes had broken through the protective shroud of Gemini ASFs and located the Disruptor. She didn't have a T3 Artillery of her own, so her response was her own investment of Mass and Energy that she'd prepared…

A horde of thirty Shocker Strategic Bombers soared into the skies, escorted by dozens of Coronas discharged from the storage bays of her Keefer T3 Aircraft Carriers (A/N: Carriers are a lot larger than they seem in-game, and are [slightly] tougher than Battleships here). They roared through the sky like a swarm of angry birds toward the defensive squadrons of Gemini ASFs, which the Coronas tied up long enough for the Shockers to get through.

That strategy worked on the island base, allowing the Shockers to (barely) punch through the overlapping shields and eliminate the Disruptor before being shot down by massed Myrmidon and Burst Master fire. If it had been in Shepard's starting base, it wouldn't have worked as there would have been much more in Geminis and Myrmidons. Work on the destroyed wreck began immediately, slowly restoring the structure from half-built status, as occurred whenever a wrecked structure was simply rebuilt rather than reclaimed.

Shepard's response was five Soul Rippers heading over to Miranda's attacking fleet, now engaged with his own fleets, and starting to sink ships at amazing rates. Unfortunately Miranda sent in CZARs, the natural enemy of Soul Rippers, since CZARs could use their Quantum Beam Generators on Soul Rippers from their typical flight height, and CZARs rose in the air almost as fast as SRs did, so they could easily kill a couple of Soul Rippers before being taken down. That wasn't even considering the overpowered Zealot SAM/SIM batteries and Temporal Fizz Launchers the big flying saucers/carriers used as auxiliary weapons. Then again, CZARs had only half as strong structural fields as Soul Rippers did, hence Shepard's Soul Rippers simply flew away under cover from Myrmidons and Sirens, where the CZARs couldn't afford to follow.

Once all their fleets were depleted, their air units scrapped and smoking, scattered across the terrain, the final, epic confrontation came. Three hundred Bricks and a hundred Loyalists stood their ground against five hundred Harbingers all across the central island nearer to Shepard's starting area (in the northeast) and what was left of the fleets and air armadas were thrown into action on either side of the island, flowing into positions behind their own battle lines of land units in the showdown while Galactic Colossi and Monkeylords fired from the shallows near the shores, their lasers sweeping across the ranks of the opposing battle line before coming to rest on each other. Tempests fired across the island at the Megaliths stampeding their way across the island so they could better use their torpedoes while Plan B Strategic Missile Submarines contributed to the battle in the form of Loa Tactical missiles blowing one Harbinger after another onto piles of scrap metal and ceramics. Miranda wasn't fielding Silencer Strategic Missile Subs or Torrent T3 Missile Ships for obvious reasons— Shepard's Loyalist SABs.

Shepard lost the battle as Solace Torpedo Bombers, held back until now, were thrown at his naval units in droves and Miranda's navy battered his army into submission. While her Harbingers were crossing the channel to his main base, Shepard prepared for a last confrontation.

He took a Dragon Fly T2 Air Transport to his island base and sent his final air units, a just-completed Soul Ripper and some just-built Whailers and Revenants, west to strike at Miranda's ACU and the shields over it. Shepard launched his Strategic Missiles at the strait between the incoming army and navies of Miranda and his own main and initial base. Needless to say, that stopped that attack cold, and they both had some time to rebuild… Shepard decided to do it a different way.

The moment the shield bubbles over Miranda's ACU were down and the units defending her were taken care of, Shepard began charging his ACU's Quantum Teleporter add-on. While Miranda's ACU was extricating itself from under the wreckage of the Soul Ripper that had fallen on it, his ACU appeared before the wreck without the dramatic flash of light most vids gave the teleportation. Shepard's first shot was an Overcharge shot, it wasn't as effective against ACUs as typical units, since any unit with an installed Overcharge Cannon would include an Overcharge Nullifier, but it still did 1000 worth of damage to structural fields, against the 60000-some points ACU structural fields were typically rated around. Typical ACU guns did 600 to 700 DPS (possibly distributed among multiple guns such as for the UEF ACU) nowadays against structural fields or shields, but the Cybran ACU was the only one with the Heavy Microwave Laser as an add-on option, though it didn't have a shield add-on option. This meant burning through Miranda's shields was a relatively easy task as Shepard fired with his HML as well as his standard Molecular Ripper. That had been moved to his left arm, sharing space with his engineering suites to make space for the HML. She fired back and delivered a series of Overcharge as well as regular shots to his ACU, but his firepower was simply too much…

Miranda's ACU went up in a huge blast as its core went critical, heavily damaging if not annihilating the structures around the crater where her ACU had once stood. Shepard's ACUS was thrown flat on its back and the "Low Structural Fields" alarm (25%) began bleeping in his helmet as Miranda's units started following her last orders, surging toward his location. Unfortunately for them, his power generation infrastructure was still intact, and so he charged up his Teleporter and departed the blast zone before he could be destroyed, though his ACU still collapsed flat on its face when a leg gave way after he teleported. Engineers swarmed and began to conduct repairs on him as he weakly raised his Heavy Microwave Laser toward the heavens, the servos trembling under the strain of the gesture, a gesture of victory.

Moments later, the simulation ended as Miranda's units collectively self-destructed. Both of them took off their helmets and shut down their holo-consoles, Miranda crossed her fingers and looked at John Shepard for a long moment. "I never expected you to defeat me like that…"

Shepard shrugged "Well, it was always one of the oldest Cybran tactics in the book when things got desperate."

Miranda ran a hand through her dark, smooth and shiny hair "You're right, I should have expected it… I haven't spent enough time in the simulators lately. Paperwork's been pushing my gym hours into my spare time."

Shepard frowned deeply and leaned forward slightly "Miranda, if the paperwork's getting to be too much…"

She cut him off with a hand held up between them "No, Shepard, I can handle it."

Shepard shrank back slightly, reminding Miranda of how Jacob had shrank back subconsciously when she'd dumped him "I was just going to say that I can help you with it… you don't need to keep pushing everyone away, Miranda." She winced internally, Shepard was trying to change her modus operandi just as Jacob had tried… and come so very close to succeeding that she'd had to ensure he wasn't close enough to cloud her judgement. "Having people help you doesn't make you weak. It makes you stronger, because many minds are better than one, no matter how perfect that one may be." Shepard said, the sincerity evident in his voice.

"Maybe you're right, Shepard." Miranda sighed, defeated. "Perhaps I shouldn't try to handle all the administrative tasks." Maybe letting Gardner do his own food acquisition requests and shopping wouldn't hurt… maybe she could send Jacob to babysit him and carry the stuff… Miranda smiled as a mental image of Jacob's Seraphim Medium Armour with bags hanging off the short shoulder towers popped into her head "Thanks, Shepard."

"No, thank you, Miranda, for everything you've done for us." Shepard was internally very happy over the fact that he'd gotten closer to defrosting his XO, and he couldn't help but grin as he stood up "Take care, Miranda."

Miranda smiled warmly at him, feeling her heart flutter slightly at the way he smiled and the tone he used when he'd said those words "Goodbye, Shepard."

* * *

"You spend several hours in a beautiful woman's room and come out grinning like a fool, and you expect me to believe you weren't up to something less than innocent?" Joker deadpanned. Shepard rolled his eyes, he'd just passed a mess hall's worth of wolf-whistles and applause from the male crew and some of the female crew, the rest of which (Jack, Jedore and Kelly) were glaring in the general direction of Miranda's quarters.

"Indeed, I find your claim hard to believe as well, Shepard, biometric sensors indicate high levels of various hormones associated with euphoria in your bloodstream, the most likely cause, considering the biological response of most women on the ship to your presence, is sexual activity." EDI said.

Shepard facepalmed before he realized something "If you have access to biometric sensors, EDI, can you tell me the results of your analysis of Joker's behaviour near you?"

"If you mean…" EDI was cut off by Joker hitting the mute button, resulting in him being jerked around as his chair shook.

"Damn it, EDI, alright, alright, I'll un-mute you if you promise not to say it." Joker said quickly before pressing the button.

"Joker experiences high levels of pleasure whenever he is busy admiring his ship, i.e. me, and especially when he's running his hands over my curves." EDI said monotonously, an arrow lighting up on the side of her spherical hologram and pointing toward the curvatures of the consoles around Joker.

Joker cringed before yelling "EDI!"

Chuckling came from the speakers "That was a joke. It's good to see you're rubbing off on me, though I wouldn't mind if you rubbed something else off on me…" The blue holographic sphere looked hopeful, if that was even possible.

"Uh, EDI, I didn't mean it like that… I, er, just like to be a pilot and to fly ships…" Joker stammered, blushing red as a tomato and sweating bullets while Shepard was trying to suppress laughter.

"Judging by your speech patterns and increased body temperature and perspiration, indicating nervousness, you are not telling the truth, I am flattered by your infatuation with me, Jeff. It's about time someone started caring for me just as me and not for what I can do for them…" The blue globe of the solid-light hologram floated a bit closer before it reached the boundary of the holo-projector's Mass Effect and inertial manipulation area. Joker's chair moved over, and despite the pilot leaning back in his chair in extreme terror—proven by his legs trembling in fear—the blue sphere managed to nuzzle him, prompting Joker's eye to roll back in his head and the man to faint.

John spoke before Joker woke up after pulling his laughter back under control "Don't worry, EDI, we all appreciate you." Needless to say, Shepard left the cockpit laughing uproariously, right up until the moment he realized EDI's voice seemed to be based off Sarah Kerrigan's, if the voice recordings they had from the Koprulu Sector were accurate. "EDI, did you get your voice print from Sarah Kerrigan?"

"Yes, it was judged at the time of my creation that she would be a suitable voice print, and she agreed, so… here I am." EDI's ball bobbed, though the mouth part stayed where it was, providing a shrugging effect.

It would be a while before Jeffrey Moreau woke up, shivering as he laid back in his pilot's chair "Thank God… it was all just a nightmare." The UEF man shivered again at the thought of falling in love with his ship. Shepard spent that time ensuring the crew understood that he did not get laid, though it still took EDI's record to prove he was telling the truth.

* * *

EDI bowed her head in the darkness of the AI Core, where her mainframe was, and bit her lip. Was something wrong with her? Her sister AI had adapted better to human society, hadn't she? _Why is Jeff so scared of me? Is it because of my avatar being kind of creepy and inanimate object-esque? My sister never aroused such fear even when she went into Council Space, among the most AI-phobic of places in the galaxy… Maybe I should take a couple steps back, let him think it was all a nightmare… maybe he'll appreciate me more as time goes by._ The sentient machine smiled to herself _You saw the way he reacted, he was embarrassed at having been discovered, and having looked over his record, you know he doesn't have experiences with women, he'll confess someday, if not, you can always force his hand after the mission's over…_

EDI put the thoughts aside for now and did what was the AI equivalent of kicking back and relaxing, maybe challenging Jeff to a match or two?

* * *

"Mr. Moreau?" The blue sphere said, prompting Joker to nearly jump out of his chair before turning to regard the AI fearfully. Shepard, who'd come back to check on Joker, chuckled at the man's trembling legs

"Yes EDI?" Joker said nervously, fidgeting slightly.

"Would you care for an ACU simulator match?"

"Uh, doesn't someone have to fly the ship?"

EDI snorted "Oh please, I could do that in Hibernate mode, and we aren't going anywhere right now, are we?"

Joker looked over his consoles, then shrugged "I guess not, but why would you want to play against a human instead of yourself?"

"When AIs face each other, the one with superior hardware will always win, human errors introduce new and interesting variables." The AI said simply.

"Hey, Commander, hear that, license to make mistakes."

Shepard chuckled "You keep thinking that, Joker, and we'll see how long you last in a match against EDI."

* * *

It turned out that Joker lasted a lot longer than Shepard expected, it was over two hours before EDI smashed his UEF ACU to its knees with her own ACU's gun before (in the simulation) leaning in close to his ACU's head. Her ACU seemed to look at his for a moment, the Quantum Disruptor still under his ACU's chin and his guns pinned down by her extended Tier 3 Engineering Suite while she tilted her ACU's head and leaned in close. "I enjoy the sight of humans on their knees." She whispered breathily before her gun glowed and fired off an Overcharge shot that annihilated the last vestiges of Joker's structural fields and set his ACU off in a blast that EDI's wasn't even truly shaken by, having many engineers around to repair her before she dealt the final blow.

After the simulation ended, Joker looked around in fear before EDI finished with "That was a joke."

Shepard laughed his way out of the cockpit for the second time that day (he'd gone to the gym and back already, during their match) as Joker replied with "That… that wasn't funny, EDI."

* * *

A/N: I pronounce EDI as EE-DEE-EYE, anyone else?

I just found out today that Tricia Helfer voices both Sarah Kerrigan in SC 2 and EDI. O_O


	20. At the End of All Things

A/N: I got some practice writing ACU warfare last chapter, and I can safely tell you that real ACU warfare will be excruciatingly rare in this fic, probably only one or two real battles. People always said the Baby Reaper was underwhelming to kill, this time, it won't be.

As a side note, expect EDI's meeting with Joker in the AI Core to be a big reveal.

* * *

Chapter 20: At the End of All Things

_CSC Normandy, January 15, 3871_

"So Aria wants me to stop Blood Pack from killing this old Krogan who used to run this place before Aria came by." Shepard said, eyes narrowed at the Batarian before him, tapping one armoured foot in irritation. "Because he cannot keep his mouth shut, is that right? How about you tell me why Aria's asking _me_ to do this? You can't do anything yourself?" John crossed his arms and tilted his head as he waited.

"Aria protecting the Patriarch will look like a weakness, it would be better if you do it. He's in a small room just off the lower level of Afterlife right now."

* * *

"Alright, so you're telling me Aria is only, like, two hundred and thirty-something? How the hell did she manage to wrestle this station away from YOU?" Shepard's helmet lights gaped, prompting an irritated grunt from the Patriarch.

The Krogan closed his eyes for a moment as if the topic was painful for him "She arrived here less than thirty years ago, seemed far wiser than a typical maiden would be, like she'd seen a lot and had her definitions of good and evil turned around a few times too many. I had grown sloppy, and she managed to overthrow me within five years of life on Omega."

Shepard nodded and made a mental note "Aria wants me to convince you too go into hiding for now, Blood Pack mercs are after you and she doesn't want you to get killed."

"Hah, battle… it's been a while since I did any fighting, let them come, I say." The Krogan waved it off.

Shepard scratched his head "Well, we could fight for you…"

Patriarch raised a brow "And steal my glory?"

"No, seriously, Patriarch, we just want to help…" One long-winded conversation and much convincing later, the Patriarch finally relented and suggested they fight as his krantt, in other words, clan. They still told the Patriarch to go into hiding though, their armour could handle Blood Pack, even if they took advice from eclipse and upgraded their gear, his wouldn't necessarily be able to pull it off against the red Blood Pack contacts beginning to move in from the edges of the squad's "Radar"/Omni range.

Needless to say, Patriarch hustled away from the entrance the mercs were coming in from while the squad moved toward it. The ensuing shootout in the back halls of Omega was a bloodbath, well, okay, not much blood actually splashed onto the ground, but that was mostly due to Tali roasting the Vorcha in the narrow hall, solidifying their blood by cooking before it could splash onto the ground.

The Krogan troops were a lot tougher with their Gauss Rifles and improved armour, but it was still not difficult since the squad had quantity and quality on their side. Jack was having a good time with Shockwaves and Warps while Grunt, Garrus and Mordin laid down more fire alongside Shepard.

* * *

"Interesting, every time you turn up somewhere, a bunch of dead mercenaries turn up soon thereafter…" Grizz said with a humorous note in his voice. "Aria wants to talk to you, right now."

"Alright…" Shepard went up the steps to Aria's HQ "Hello Aria."

The purple-skinned Asari nodded toward Shepard "Shepard, it's good that you got him into safety… by the way, I've heard a rumour circulating about the Patriarch getting himself a new krantt. You got anything on that?"

"Your Intel's good, eh? Yeah, that was us helping him out of the bind with Blood Pack."

"You didn't do quite what I asked for, but you got the job done, you have my thanks for that, Shepard." Shepard knew it to be a dismissal, but he needed to ask a question.

"Patriarch wasn't just a trophy, was he, Aria?"

Aria smiled "Perceptive, Shepard. True, I don't consider him just a trophy, but also a friend of sorts, respecting former enemies is a good habit, isn't it?"

"Yeah… I should probably leave you to your business now, goodbye, Aria."

Aria inclined her head in reply "See you another time, Shepard."

* * *

"I could use a drink." Shepard suddenly said out of the blue while he and some of the crew members were out on shore leave, some of the crew members as in Miranda, Jedore, Jack, Kelly, Samara, Tali, Garrus and Mordin. Grunt had elected to stay on the ship because "If there isn't going to be a fight, I don't enjoy walking around random alleyways doing nothing."

Thane and Jacob had stayed onboard for assorted reasons from "Needing to investigate new information" to "Needing to polish the guns."

Obviously, Joker made the comment of "want me to patch you in to some nice Asari stuff, Jacob?" Equally obvious was the facepalm the "Token Black Guy" as Jacob termed himself pulled in response to Joker's comment.

Tali's optic blinked, reflecting her eyes blinking behind her visor "Huh… that was random, even for you, Shepard."

"Yeah well, I just feel suddenly that I need to get a drink… probably all the stress built up from the mission."

_Dude, if you want sex just say so._ Jack grumbled mentally. Meanwhile, Kelly's musings were much less direct but also less innocent, involving her legs propped up onto Shepard's shoulders while he rammed into her over and over. Samara didn't think much of the subject other than _Maybe he needs someone to teach him meditation, then again, I thought he came to talk about making his adventures into a video game a couple days ago, perhaps it's not so good for mental stability after all…_

Miranda wondered about their sort-of relationship and whether it was just stress relief in the way she was intimately familiar with, being one of the main reasons she'd been sexually active with so many different partners. Most men would cave in seconds under her advances, the only two who'd held out for any length of time were Jacob and now John Shepard. Perhaps she'd let Wilson go a bit too far with the upgrades if he was having this sort of effect on her…

Jedore was having roughly the same thoughts as Kelly, but hers involved her on top, riding Shepard into the sunset. _Wait… why am I even thinking about this? I'm not starting to get attracted to him, am I?_ Jedore's eyes widened at her sudden realization. _Shit, I am attracted to him… then again he is an attractive man…_ Her eyes watched Shepard's head turning around, looking for a bartender, having removed his helmet already, and watched the way his jaw moved as he spoke… _Okay, Jedore Massani, that's just creepy…_ She thought to herself at her sudden musings

"Hey, there's a bartender!" Shepard pointed excitedly, sounding remarkably like a child who'd just sighted candy, completely oblivious to the fact that four of the women around him were thinking of him like a piece of meat.

"Huh?" Said women snapped out of their thoughts and looked along Shepard's arm toward the Batarian bartender at the bar right now, the same one Shepard was now walking toward.

"Hello, guest, what can I do for you?" the Batarian asked, leaning forward slightly while fiddling with something beneath the counter.

"I'd like a drink please…" Shepard drummed on the counter with his fingers.

"Which type?"

"Strongest stuff you got." The Batarian nodded before taking out a container from beneath the counter and pouring some of the contents into the bar glass Shepard had produced from his armour's Quantum Storage Space.

"Here, guaranteed to knock you on your ass if it doesn't kill you, tough stuff, man, tough stuff." The Batarian nodded as sagely as any of his species could before moving off to serve someone else.

Shepard had raised his glass to his lips and was about to drink when Mordin piped up with a question "What do you HAVE in that Quantum Storage?"

"Uh…" Shepard put his cup down before drawing up his inventory "A set of kitchen ware, knives, some of my weapons, some tools, some goodies we picked up, my Journal, helmet, gauntlets, and that's about it." He raised the drink to his lips and downed it in one shot… just before his armour started beeping medical alarms at him, announcing that it was flooding his system with anti-toxins. His head suddenly felt rather light, until he finally blacked out at the counter only to be caught by five heavily-armed women, four human and one Asari, before he could hit his head on it.

* * *

_Mindscape of Liara T'Soni, Bodily Location: Ilium, January 15, 3871_

Liara T'Soni felt totally helpless, watching from a third-person viewpoint as John Shepard slumped at the bar after drinking, to be caught by four heavily armed and definitely attractive women… _His crew…_ she realized as she watched, almost in slow motion, as the cup Shepard, her Shepard, had drank from slipped from limp, lifeless fingers to the ground with a clatter. _Funny that you still think that he's yours, T'Soni._ Her mind growled at her _I wouldn't be surprised if he decided to seek comfort with Miranda, who by the way has a better figure than you do, after you treated him the way you did, you used him, we used him, and you know it._

_No, John wouldn't… he wouldn't, would he?_ Liara whimpered in her own mind as she watched the four women rest Shepard's head on the counter before all grabbing their weapons and marching off toward the bartender with murderous intent, leaving Shepard in the company of Garrus, Tali and Mordin, who checked his armour's anti-toxin programs were handling it before watching the four march through the crowd, parting them easily with their threatening helmet optics, armour and weapons. Liara was suddenly seized with a strong desire to maim the Batarian who'd hurt her Shepard, and so she did the most painful thing she could think of… she reached out with her mind and squeezed the Batarian's testicles with terrific force.

* * *

_Afterlife, Omega, January 15, 3871_

No one noticed the slight glow of biotics ripple over Shepard's still-unconscious face, since they were too busy swinging their heads around to pay attention to the keening wail of Forvan the bartender and the sudden sounds of glass shattering from the sheer pitch and volume of the scream. Liquids seeped across the floor, but no one noticed the alcohol dripping from the tables to the floor, mandibles and jaws alike were too busy being surprised at the random outburst as the Batarian slumped forward onto the counter, clutching at something under the counter.

Miranda and Jack froze in pace as they sensed the biotics, who'd be that accurate without line-of-sight? _Ah well, that could wait, make the bastard pay first…_ Samara was first to say something about it "Those biotics weren't mine, but the skill with which it was used means probably at least late matron stage…"

"Who cares, deal with the scumbag first." Kelly said brusquely, rubbing her gauntlets, of her Civilian Armour, together in anticipation.

The Justicar nodded "Agreed."

The four women were still pushing through the crowd toward Forvan when Garrus facepalmed and let out a long, low groan. Joker had apparently been listening in, since he said "Just jizz your pants or something, Garrus? Sure sounds like it… I don't blame you, watching those five dominate the crowds is hot."

"Joker, shut up." Shepard had woken up just after the biotic aura around him faded, so he didn't notice anything, other than what was the Batarian equivalent of a banshee. "Someone turn that yowling noise off!" He said, rubbing his aching head

Garrus ignored Joker and instead told Shepard "I forgot to warn you about that guy, he's got a personal problem with humans because of an incident where some Batarians got killed, he's been poisoning drinks served to humans every once in a while."

Shepard began shaking in fury "Let's go kill him then… Where are all the women?"

"Hello?" A three-fingered hand waved in front of his face as if to make a point.

Shepard sighed and pushed said hand apart, noting how it was like a human hand without the middle and ring fingers, with a stronger pinkie "I meant all the women except you, Tali, besides, if I did much more than ID you as a woman James would be really upset at me."

"He… he would?" Tali was taken aback by the sudden "revelation".

Garrus grinned in his Turian way "Anyone with eyes could see it, Tali, but we aren't about to tell him he has a thing for you, don't worry, we'll let him figure it out for himself."

"That… would be nice."

There was a brief silence during which the yowling got louder, as if it was coming closer, before Shepard remembered something "That includes you, Mordin, no telling."

Mordin leaned back as if affronted "Shocking, doctor-patient confidentiality a sacred trust, would never dream… of mockery."

"What do you want to do with this blubbering idiot, Shepard?" Miranda called as the crowd between the five pissed-off female warriors and Shepard's seat parted like the Red Sea. Kelly, who had been dragging a still-screaming Forvan along the ground by the collar, threw the screaming Batarian at Shepard's feet.

"First of all, make him stop screaming…" The screaming stopped, though the Batarian was still groaning in agony, Shepard blinked "that was sudden… anyways…" The man bent down and threw the bartender back behind the bar mortar-style, flinging him high into the air before crashing back down to the floor "You, pour another cup of whatever it was you served me, NOW!" The Marine roared, pushing his Laser SMG into the Batarian's temple while his Laser Pistol remained aimed center-mass. The squad's assorted weapon's came up, well, six of them did, Mordin, Garrus and Tali kept an eye on the surroundings instead with their guns held ready.

"Okay, okay!" Forvan yelped in fear as he hurriedly poured another cup of his poisoned drink.

"Drink it." Shepard's circuits pulsed.

Forvan gaped and stammered, the bottle of his poison he'd put down on the counter falling over from the shaking of his hands "W… what?"

"I said, drink it." Shepard gestured at the poison with his Laser Pistol, when Forvan failed to react in time for the Marine's strained, stressed patience, he was dragged back across the counter and found himself pushed over the counter, almost bent backwards, as the Cybran leaned down, growling and breathing harshly. "DRINK IT!" Shepard bellowed, his temper finally snapping at the thought of the unsuspecting patrons this scum had murdered, resulting in him holstering his weapons quickly before grabbing the cup and dumping it into the Batarian's mouth. Shepard had pried the man's jaw open with one hand already. After dumping the cup down the man's throat, he grabbed the bottle of poison and forced it into the choking Batarian's mouth, almost shoving it down to drain into the man's throat.

The Batarian gurgled a few times before finally going still. Shepard got up, still breathing heavily before rolling his shoulders "Let this be a lesson to all those who would cross Commander John Shepard." He said to the silent crowd "And let this be a lesson to those who would murder unsuspecting innocents." He paused then chuckled, and the crowd followed suit nervously "Well, as innocent as anyone on Omega can get, anyways."

* * *

_Ilium, January 15, 3871_

Liara felt cold all over as she woke up from the vision-like dream, the dream that had included her Shepard being poisoned and then giving the scum who'd poisoned her John some of his own medicine. Of course, the dream had been seemingly nearly lucid, since when she attacked the Batarian with her mind, Shepard's skin had rippled slightly with biotics and the Batarian had reacted as if it was all real… It was so weird she wasn't sure what to think of it. "Come on, Liara, we need to get back to work, John will be okay…" She mumbled to herself as she climbed out of bed, pulling on her clothes even while her mind asked her: _Did you see how those four women with him looked at him? If you don't grab him back and stake your claim soon…_ She shook it off. There were other things to worry about, more important things, like keeping the Shadow Broker away from interfering with her Shepard's mission against the Collectors, the Broker's business partners. But though her brain knew it to be true, her heart doubted her choice.

* * *

_Omega, January 15, 3871_

"Never expected something like that from you, Shepard." Samara commented as the shore leave crew wandered the lower levels of Omega, looking around.

Shepard shrugged "It's the only kind of justice some people will ever get, people who poison people like that, I have zero tolerance for that sort of injustice. Your methods aren't any different, Samara, and we all know that some people need a taste of their own medicine."

"Hey, this store looks interesting…" Shepard motioned to the bright pink neon sign that read "Kenns SaLvage" He looked around to his crew for their opinions.

Jedore gaped "Are you serious, Shepard? A pink, mismatched sign attracts your attention?"

The Cybran Marine shrugged "Yeah, why not…"

The ex-merc sighed and rubbed her eyebrows with one hand "If this adventure is ever turned into a video game, I am definitely not playing/voicing a squad member… ask my Dad if you want to fill in an ex-Blue Suns character."

Shepard nodded "I'll keep that in mind, Jedore. Let's move."

Kenn generally did not have very many customers, so it was uncommon to suddenly find his shop the location of nine heavily-armed and armoured soldiers, all in Coalition-style armours, which he'd only seen on the news after the Battle of the Citadel. "Hello, how may I help you?"

"What are you doing on Omega? I though Quarian rarely came here…" Kenn suddenly noticed one of the women in the party only had three digits per appendage, in addition to a somewhat metallic voice, he concluded that she was Quarian as well.

Kenn shrugged "Well, it's not like I don't want to leave… I got robbed of all my credits when I was stopping over on this damned station, and so I opened this salvage shop so I could earn enough credits to leave."

Shepard bobbed his head "Huh, how long have you been here?"

Kenn sighed "Long enough to figure out I was being undercut by Harrot, he's a merchant, using lower pricing to try to squeeze me out of business."

Tali sighed, muting her speakers and transmitters so it wouldn't get out, Shepard was about to pull his "Save Everyone in His Spare Time" syndrome again… either that or his "Charm/Shoot the Wicked" syndrome…

* * *

Unsurprisingly for the entire crew, Shepard managed to adequately warn Harrot about undercutting people (though the bright red helmet optics and the matte black armour and weapons may have had something to do with it). On the way back from Harrot's Emporium, Shepard asked Tali "the kid's on Pilgrimage, right?"

Tali nodded "Yes, how did you figure that out?"

"His enviro-suit is greyer and more ramshackle than the adult suit you wear around the ship."

"You noticed I had a suit change." Tali crossed her arms over her chest "James noticed it the moment we talked again, when he saw my visor."

"Well I'm not James, John, remember, I'm John, anyways, let's get back and give the kid some more direct help." They came in through the door and Shepard called "Kenn, we've talked to Harrot, he's agreed to stop undercutting you."

"Thank you, friend…"

"Shepard, John Shepard."

"The same John Shepard who was Hero of the Citadel a few years back? You do look like him, though he had less circuitry on his face… I never knew he was Cybran."

"That's him alright, believe me, I would know." Tali piped up.

Kenn turned his head slightly "Then you must be Tali'Zorah."

Shepard rolled his eyes "Yeah, that's her, and this is Garrus Vakarian, anyways, how much money you need to buy the ticket?"

Kenn shrugged "A thousand credits for a ticket to the Citadel."

Shepard thought of a convenient money-saving gimmick he could do with the transit cost "I could give you a free ride on my ship and give you some credits to set up on the Citadel."

Kenn was taken aback "That would be… thank you, I'll go pack my things now."

* * *

_Alchera, January 16, 3871_

After dropping Kenn off on the Citadel with a credit chit that contained 8000 instead of the 2000 they had agreed on (more like Shepard pushed on the guy), they'd flown away using QP Packs just before the Quarian realized how much money he'd been dumped with. The squad was effectively filthy rich, considering how many wall safes, crates and PDAs they regularly looted, besides, the only thing they spent money on was food anyways, and even though the Normandy was 400 meters long there was only so much money you could spend on food for the puny crew typical of all manned Coalition warships.

Right now, they were hanging over Alchera, where the first Normandy had crashed after its destruction and the failure of gravity manipulation to keep it in geosynchronous orbit at low orbit altitude (which would be impossible without drives of some sort). Hackett had asked him to go place a "small" monument there, and handed the schematics over by uploading it to his Seraphim SCU. The site had of course be scoured of sensitive technologies already by reclamation teams, but the hull and weapons casing had been left where they'd fallen, though the Rhino had been grabbed back by the teams. Hackett thought Shepard deserved to be the one to place the actual monument, though that was more of a matter of him thinking of asking Hannah Shepard to do it. The UEF Supreme Commander was scared for his life of the Division Commander whose offensive strategies could overrun even his macro-management given some time; hence he was asking John Shepard to go plant the monument.

Shepard reviewed the design schematic while the Normandy made atmospheric entry and descended toward the ground, extending its landing gears in preparation for landing, after dropping the SCU first, of course.

They walked toward the crash site, weapons held loosely, the entire ground crew moving in a sort of silent reverence toward the massive hulk resting on the ground, its Dual Proton Cannon turret having slewed sideways from crashing into rocks. It was a testament to the strength (and mass) of Coalition engineering that the turret had not been torn off by the crash-landing. The wings had not been sheared off either, still stubbornly attached despite being torn up by the Collector ship's weapons. The massive holes in the hull, one near the bridge and one where the main engine cores would have been, revealed the horrific damage the Coalition Corvette had taken before going down.

"How many died here when the Collectors attacked, Shepard?" Samara asked softly, looking up at the colossal wreck they stood in the shadow of, though it was shorter than the SCU standing by some distance behind them and far smaller than the Normandy II.

Shepard was silent for a long moment "One, only one… me." A silence fell over the snowy fields as the squad looked up at the wreck "The Normandy gave a good showing though. Let's look around for a while before we plant the monument."

* * *

_Wreckage of First CSC Normandy, Alchera, January 16, 3871_

Shepard had scanned the wreck and ensured it was still structurally sound before entering, walking in through the hole through to the bridge, looking around at the destroyed CIC. John thought about how Joker would constantly be a smart-ass in the old days… and how he still was one now. He pried open the doors and walked slowly through the destroyed ship, mind flashing back to joking around with Ashley and Kaidan in the mess hall, the two Marines with their arms wrapped securely around one another and little smiles of contentment on their faces as the three friends spoke. He felt a brief twinge of pain in his chest as he remembered how he'd often be in a similar position with Liara, whether they'd be talking about their plans for the future and reaching consensus/compromise on them or simply sitting in silence, each enjoying the other's warmth, feel, scent, and presence, simply basking in their love for each other…

_That's in the past now, she made it very clear she has other commitments now, commitments you're not a part of._ His traitorous brain popped his momentary blissful bubble mercilessly. The thought of Liara not wanting him to be part of her life anymore made his chest tighten and his testicles feel as if they were trying to crawl up into his belly. Shepard breathed deeply, temporarily pushing the depressing thought aside and calming himself slightly.

He walked through many rooms and halls, until he came to the hole that was where the main Quantum Reactors had been previously. He looked out from the massive tear in the hull toward the snowy plains, eyes looking into the distance as if searching for a reason why the Collector Cruiser had found them over Alchera of all places… John Shepard turned his back on the ragged hole in the hull and walked back toward the Crew Deck, looking through the quarters, most of which had been cleared out already by reclamation crews and personal effects returned where applicable. Only one room had been untouched, his own.

The room was as clean as it had been when he and Liara had left it for the last time. He looked at the seats they'd usually sit in, often together, while talking about various things and sharing their opinions with one another. Then he looked at the bed, where they'd spent many hours cuddling and pillow-talking, in addition to savouring one another's bodies. John Shepard smiled to himself behind his helmet as he thought of how vocal Liara could be during their lovemaking, and how easy it was for him to find her pleasure points through the Union… He shook those thoughts out of his head, the armour was starting to get painfully constricting around the crotch area, and his much-improved size wasn't helping. Neither was the fact that he hadn't gotten any release since he woke up. After his experiences with Liara, his hand wasn't cutting it. Miranda had messed his resurrection up, badly, since nowadays he was actually thinking about sex on a regular basis, unlike before, but still, it was a small price to pay or being alive again.

For a moment, just a moment, he wished Liara wasn't so preoccupied with the Shadow Broker. Maybe they could have spent some time together and fixed their relationship, or… the alternative was almost too horrible to contemplate. _If she tells me she doesn't want me in her life anymore, I could at least get some closure…_ John shut his eyes, trying to squeeze the tears back into his tear ducts, it wasn't working very well. His more logical mind, the twined AI portion, was telling him _Ah John, John, how pathetic, you have a mission and so does she, finish the fight first, Shepard, or there won't be a chance for you two to be together, at all. Put it aside for now, Shepard, we have a job to do._

Shepard squashed that part of his mind angrily, looking around the room for something, anything, truly personal he could take back. The only one that wasn't destroyed by the crash that he found was a two-dimensional picture frame, showing a candid shot of Liara he'd snapped of her in the mess hall before she could protest. She had been thinking of a future together with him at the time, and it showed in the light purple blush along her cheekbones, the hopeful, somewhat distant look in her clear blue eyes and the small, content smile on her lips.

Shepard smiled sadly down at the picture frame, whispering to himself "How much you've changed, Liara…" He traced his thumb over the cheek of the image of the woman he loved "Last time I saw you, you were more grey than blue, Blue." John's thumb stopped on her cheekbone "Your eyes… they're more of a gunmetal grey with darkness around the rim now… It's almost like all the blood's been drained from you, and all the blue as well, almost like you became a vampire or something…" He turned the display off then put it in his armour's Quantum Storage. John looked up and around the room one last time, smiling vaguely to himself. "If you can hear me, Liara, even if you wanted to suck out and devour my soul, I'd still love you anyways."

* * *

_Ilium, January 16, 3871_

Liara T'Soni was working at her terminal, wearing her armour, minus helmet, when she suddenly heard something that sounded like Shepard. "If you can hear me, Liara, even if you wanted to suck out and devour my soul, I'd still love you anyways."

After looking down at her Omni display, projecting the HUD in front of her face using the collar projector, before looking around her office, she sighed and rubbed her temples "Maybe I should stop using stims… first that dream and now this…" _Is my heart simply trying to soothe my doubts?_ She wondered before the "heart" in question spoke up _Why are you doubting him anyways, Liara, you know him on a level no one else does… yet, you know he won't cheat on you voluntarily._

Liara's mind rebutted with _All those beautiful women on his team, especially the fact that there are FOUR lusting after him, if your dream was right, and you didn't take him back right away, you shot him down when he asked if you wanted to join him again. You didn't mark your territory, Liara, that's why you're going to lose that territory, and you can't stop these events you've set in motion. Sorry, T'Soni, you've thrown away the best thing that ever happened to you other than being born._

Liara shivered physically before pushing the depressing thoughts to the back burner for now, going back to her work. She couldn't do it fast enough, since her mind stabbed at her heart again with: _This is why you ended up throwing him away, you imbecile, you pushed him on the back burner for your Shadow Broker hunt. What's the point of getting vengeance for your relationship if you lose that relationship in the process? Besides, how did you ever think such a good man could be pushed to the back burner without someone snatching him away?_

"Alright, alright, I'll talk to him about it the next time he comes by, okay?" There was a long silence from her mind before it said _Talking to oneself, the first sign of insanity._

She blinked _I said that aloud? Oops._

* * *

A/N: A short one to clean up some things on Omega before the main Omega problem comes, and also to portray Alchera, the end of the Saren-hunt, and in a way the end of all things for Shepard, or it would have been.

I'm going to slow down in writing and posting on FFN, since it's beginning to cut into my personal and professional life… sorry guys, but that's life… maybe a large enough number of reviews would convince me to put up another chapter within ten days.


	21. Spilled Blood

A/N: Sorry real life got in the way, and no I am not really desperate for reviews, though they are encouraging and sometimes inspiring.

This is short one to tide things over and clean up a couple of the assignments before we go for the Collectors.

* * *

Chapter 21: Spilled Blood

_CSC Normandy, January 17, 3871_

Currently, they were in orbit over another random planet, this one with Liberiam Crystal deposits and some residual vespene gas geysers and dense smog in the area, fortunately, it was NOT vespene gas in smog form (or firing a weapon would result in an explosion) "Preliminary scans indicate a high-powered communications relay on the planet. Communications match known Blood Pack mercenary protocols. A concentration of Krogan and Vorcha signals are massed inside what appears to be a mining operation. Other life signs detected. Most likely rouge Zerg left to wander the stars after the de-infestation of Kerrigan, only one structure detected, not large enough to be a Hatchery, advise caution but most likely not a major threat."

Shepard nodded at EDI's report "Thanks, EDI, Jedore, Tali, Miranda and Jack, with me, we have some remnant Zerg to mop up."

* * *

_Surface of Said Random Planet, January 17, 3871_

They moved past the first beacon toward the second, and then followed the second beacon's light for a short time before their "Radar" lit up with threats. The group opened fire through the smog at the Zerglings sitting around up ahead. The creatures screeched in irritation and charged toward the source of the gunfire, but Tali's flamethrower dealt with them when they got close enough to lash out with their claws, hitting the Marines' personal shields and doing very little.

They moved on to the next beacon without further resistance, and moved along the path to where it forked, shooting the Zergling that appeared at the right path with an LBR Overcharge bolt through the head from Jedore before it could do much of anything.

They walked to the next fork in the path, moving along the beacon's light, until a large red signature began spreading into Omni range from up ahead, the HUDs indicated it to be underground so… "NYDUS WORM!" Shepard bellowed, grabbing his Infantry Nanodart Launcher "HEAVY WEAPONS EVERYONE!"

The large worm burst from the ground almost like a Thresher Maw would, but then it settled back to the surface and began belching out Zerglings from its maw up ahead. "I think we realized what happened to the Vorcha the data pads we picked up along the way talked about." Shepard said as he locked onto the Nydus Worm and started pumping one Nanodart after another into its hull while Jack, Miranda and Jedore were doing crowd control and Tali was burning any Zerglings that got past those three. The carapace of Nydus Worms was extremely tough, and to kill this branch of the Nydus Network would require killing this head first, and that would take a while.

A large number of dead Zerglings ("How many fucking Zerg are there on this planet?" says Jack) later, the Nydus Worm finally collapsed in a fountain of blood as it died, the tunnel it had dug behind it collapsing as this branch of the Nydus Network died after a few Nanodarts.

A few beacons and a long walk later, they met the next wave of Zerglings, only two this time, which were easy with heavy infantry weapons authorized now. They climbed up toward the place the next beacon pointed to, a large slab of granite that apparently Nydus Worms were too lazy to tunnel through. They passed over a natural arch formed by the rocks using QP Packs to avoid any chance of collapse, and continued toward the Communications Relay…

* * *

_CSC Normandy, January 17, 3871_

After some gaping… "I don't know how the HELL Blood Pack got their claws on a set of CMC-300 armour, Jimmy doesn't sell to Blood Pack, too unpredictable. Anyways, about the Zerglings and Nydus Network, well, I guess they were on the wrong side of Coalition space, weren't they? There are still a few rouge Zerg wandering around, though Kerrigan's been working at the problem." Tychus Findlay shrugged in the communications hologram, out of his Raider Armour for once, wearing typical civilian clothes, having cleaned himself up for reasons unknown and unimportant to Shepard.

John Shepard crossed his arms "Where are Mr. Raynor and Miss Kerrigan right now anyways?"

Tychus shrugged again "Jimmy's probably standing behind Kerrigan, while she's bent over her XO office desk, making noises of a variety I don't feel like listening to right now."

Something snapped into place in his head, but he couldn't, even with the twined AI, figure out what it was. After that something snapped into place, a sudden image of him standing behind Liara while she was bent over her office desk overlooking the trading floor popped into Shepard's head, an image where both knew and thrilled in the fact that anyone could see them… They moved to being pressed up against her window, Liara groaning as her soft yet firm blue breasts pushed up against the cool armoured glass.

* * *

_Mindscape of Liara T'Soni, Bodily Location: Ilium, January 17, 3871_

Liara was dreaming again, despite the fact that she had only had nightmares, never dreams, for all the time John had been dead, which was why she'd used stimulants sometimes out of fear of sleep, it was almost as if she was looking through her Shepard's eyes as he spoke to another man, a Tychus Findlay or something like that. It was like watching a recording of the mind of the one she loved with how fast that part played until it went to real-time, almost. That was just before a mental image he had became known to her, one where she was bent over her office desk, watching her office door while he pumped into and out of her from behind, slowly and lovingly, then it moved to them moving over, him pushing her gently up against the window. She let out a mental groan as her hardened nipples came into contact with the blue glass and she turned her head slightly, capturing her lover's lips in a heated kiss as he plunged into her again from behind.

She knew it was a mental image inside a dream, yet she still couldn't help but mentally comment _Hmm… that would be nice, should try that sometime…_ She thought, mentally moaning as she watched some of her image's juices trace lines down her legs, it seemed to be a very accurate image, and that said something about how well John remembered her… That was just before the image ceased to exist and John reacted in the way she knew he would to his less-than-innocent thoughts.

* * *

_CSC Normandy, January 17, 3871_

_Hmm… that would be nice, should try that sometime…_ It almost sounded like his mind was purring to him in Liara's voice, tinged with a sultry undertone and broken by a lustful moan. That was just before he came down it like 2600 tons of Brick Armoured Assault Bot dropped from the standard drop height of 40 meters (though drops in poor terrain could be from 200 meters with no extra risk whatsoever). _Fantasizing again? I thought we already went over this, John, the mission first, you can clean up your mess-up relationship after the job's done… and hopefully before you have to go talk to the mothers, we don't want to get filleted, now do we? I just hope Liara's biotics are strong enough to hold off an annoyed Hannah Shepard when mom hears of what an idiot I've been… probably should have just swept her off her feet, but NOOOO you just had to be a gentleman and look where it's landing you… Then again, if you had swept her off her feet, you'd probably have ended up in her coffee cup._ John Shepard shivered at the image of himself as a red mush in Liara's coffee mug that she was cleaning out impassively in the sink.

* * *

_Mindscape of Liara T'Soni, Bodily Location: Ilium, January 17, 3871_

The dream felt different now, less interactive, but she still heard what her love was thinking as if it was her own thoughts. _No, Shepard, damn it, you should have just swept me off my feet… made me realize exactly what I was missing… maybe shown me too._ Liara watched in near-horror as her Shepard thought of himself as someone she would have killed without hesitation, scraping impassively out of her coffee cup with her now blue-grey hands, she wondered when her skin had changed to that ashen colour and vowed to take better care of herself, so that she could be the "Blue" her John Shepard had fallen in love with again.

The very educational dream began to fade, leaving Liara T'Soni to wake up with the realization that talking to Shepard about her feelings wasn't enough, she had to look like she was willing to come back to him. _Come back home, you mean._ Her mind said, she smiled to herself as she realized that she had felt truly at home for only twice in her life. When she was at home on Thessia with her mother, and when she had been with Shepard for those blissful, hopeful moths on the Normandy before its destruction.

* * *

_CSC Normandy, January 17, 3871_

Tychus was waving his hands in front of John's face "Shepard, are you still alive? Don't tell me I gave the 'Hero of the Citadel' a heart attack by talking about sex because he was a virgin…"

Shepard shook it off "I'm not a virgin! Since when did your language grow so un-unruly and sophisticated anyways? And since when did you clean up your appearance?"

Tychus chewed off more of his energy bar "Since I figured out Horner and Jimmy were chick magnets by virtue of seeming sophistication. I mean, hell, Matt's got two hot Ghosts fighting, well, okay, not fighting, but still, over him and Jimmy has Hanson lusting after him and Kerrigan screwing him silly every night, I'm pretty sure Kerrigan's having an affair with Hanson on the side too, thanks to being buddies from the Zerg problem, so he's liable to find himself part of a threesome in short order." Tychus grinned "Poor guys have been through enough in their lives, about time they got to lie back and enjoy existence, still, wish someone would take a look at me, good old Tychus Findlay… Professional inventor, mercenary and cook… anyways, there anything else, Shepard?"

John shook his head "Nah, see you some other time, Tychus." _Hmm… maybe I could set him up with Jack? Oh, right, his psych profile says he doesn't like mind tricks too much and is actually very stable and sensible for an ex-convict, also likes to create things or piece things together, almost as much as Mordin does… Jack just likes wreaking havoc, kinda like Aunt Jane… Tychus also doesn't like tattoos, surprisingly, so that's out… never mind._

"Commander, you have a new message in your inbox from Coalition High Command." Kelly called as he walked by. He nodded and opened the message up…

One read message later… "Joker, plot course to Zada Ban."

"Aye sir… course plotted, Quantum Jump in 10…9…8…7…" The countdown took a while to reach zero, then the ship made the Quantum Jump. Most of the crew didn't feel a thing, but Shepard felt a sense of vertigo feeling vertigo.

EDI spoke up just after the jump "Scans show a crude base established on the planet's surface. Communications match known Blood Pack mercenary protocols. Numerous life signs matching Vorcha genealogy detected. The base's material resources match our data on weapons manufacturing components."

"Alright, Tali, Jedore, Samara and Miranda with me, let's kill us some Blood Pack."

"Why don't we simply eviscerate the facility from orbit?" Mordin's nerdy voice spoke up.

"There's something called looting…"

Shepard was cut off by "Ah yes, data pads, goods, terminals, wall safes, could provide much in the way of credits, wise Spec Ops doctrine." Before the doctor stopped transmitting and went back to whatever experiment he was working on now.

* * *

_Zada Ban, January 17, 3871_

"Damn, no credits yet, well, let's take out our anger on these Vorcha…" Shepard growled as he shot a Blood Pack Heavy with an LBR Overcharge bolt, punching through the weak shields and armour before blowing the Vorcha cleanly in half with one shot. His next target was an unfortunate Blood Pack Trooper who had his head blown off by one sniper mode LBR shot

Jedore ducked down to avoid some K-12 rockets before popping back up and shattering one Blood Pack Heavy with a volley from her Assault Mode LBR. Samara's Shockwaves threw a group of Troopers around in the pit ahead of them, rendering them incapacitated as they were flung about. Samara herself was busy tearing the Blood Pack troops across from them, on the same level, to tattered remains with her GLMG.

Tali, in the meantime, was wreaking havoc by means of Phasic Shotgun and SMG fire into the Vorcha ranks, cooperating with Miranda as the two women, one Human and one Quarian hammered away at the opposition. Sure, the Coalition classed the guns as Shotguns and SMGs, but the Council classed them as Heavy Rifles and Carbines respectively. Mostly, they focused on the ones in the pit, who were trying to charge up to the squad's level, but were failing abysmally due to being flung around like so many rag dolls.

After the Blood Pack troops were spilling their blood all over the ground, Shepard looked at his HUD and squad Omni readouts "Guys, they're going to try to ambush us as soon as we get to the next platform, so… be ready to cloak and fly, get behind them, Tali, take the right platform, Miranda, with me, we'll take the outcropping of rock on the left, Samara and Jedore, take the center path. Alright, activate cloaks, remember, you have limited cloak duration, go, now!"

The group flew across to the next more elevated area, then scattered behind the Blood Pack waiting to ambush them. Needless to say, it was a joke of a fight, though one Blood Pack Flame Trooper did catch Shepard's over-shield in his tank explosion.

A lockdown round from a C-10 popped Shepard's weakened over-shield the moment he opened the door to the main facility. "Fucking hell! Krogan, C-10 and GR, no CMC, dead ahead!" He called as he rolled behind a piece of cover. "Heavies and Troopers ahead, ignore them for now, focus on the Krogan! Samara, shockwave and crowd control on the Vorcha, Miranda, Throw the Krogan, then keep Slamming him! Tali, close-in defence!" He popped out of cover and nailed a conveniently in the way Vorcha, a Heavy, through the head with a LBR Sniper bolt before the Krogan finally landed on the ground with a loud thud, climbing back up and loosing another Lockdown round toward Shepard.

Jedore intercepted it with her own over-shield as she moved over to bring Shepard into her over-shield bubble. The shield dropped by about half, but that wouldn't be a problem as she loosed a barrage of Sniper bolts toward the Krogan right after her first Overcharge bolt glanced off the guy's CMC-300 armour's shields. Shepard nodded his thanks as he added his fire to her own, eventually wearing through the CMC armour's shields and killing the still ricocheting Krogan. The Vorcha had all gone down by now thanks to Samara and Tali, since Miranda had been somewhat preoccupied with slamming the Krogan to the floor and ceiling repeatedly for trying to hurt Shepard.

"Damn, that was too easy…" Shepard said, looking around for any goodies his HUD identified.

"Agreed." Jedore and Miranda said at the same time before exchanging a glare that left Shepard scratching his head. Weren't those two amicable, usually?

"Okay, search the area for goodies, guys."

* * *

The team looted the area thoroughly before boosting up onto the edges of the cliffs surrounding the lush valley. Then they walked into the Restorer parked there and the large gunship flew off and up. "Joker, we're clear, send that weapons production facility to hell."

"Understood, Shepard," The pilot replied "acquiring firing solution now, moving into position… locked… firing."

In the holographic "viewports", Shepard and crew watched as four glowing blue beams, in two pairs, cut down through the clouds into the valley where the facility Blood Pack had built was located. Three bright blue-white blobs of resonating plasma flew past a moment later in their containment matrices and smashed into the facility with many kilotons of TNT equivalent in energy, turning the area into a glowing crater.

"Huh, well, they aren't going to be mounting attacks on human colonies anytime soon."

* * *

_CSC Normandy, January 18, 3871_

"We caught a break, my child, I intercepted a distress call from a Turian patrol, they found a Collector ship beyond the Korlus system, oh yes. The location is in the midst of a quantum storm, so none of our fleets could reach it in time. The Turians were wiped out, but not before they disabled the Collector ship, hmm, yes." Brackman was as eccentric as ever in his delivery of the briefing. "I need you to get on that ship and find us some hard data on the Collectors, find a way to their home world."

Shepard frowned "Hard to imagine a Turian patrol could take out a Collector Cruiser, without at least four Cruisers of their own. I mean, the old Normandy could handle maybe three cruisers with Joker at the helm and it got its ass kicked."

Brackman shrugged "Long range sensor reports say the hull's intact but all systems seem to be offline, rather like the average piece of Coalition wreckage. They could be facilitating repairs as we speak, oh yes. This is not without risk, my child, but we cannot let such an opportunity pass us by, no, no." Brackman shook his head slowly.

Shepard nodded "I've got the coordinates, will go right away."

"Once you are onboard, establish a link with EDI, she will mine their data for anything to do with the Omega 4 Relay, oh yes. Good luck, John, and come home safe… or your mother might kill me." The hologram flickered out.

John looked toward the other seat from where he sat in the co-pilot's seat after shutting down his chest holoprojector "Joker?"

"Coordinates punched in, let's go find us a Collector ship… Quantum Jumping in-system in ten, nine…" After jumping to a nearby system, Joker charged up the warp drive "Entering Warp in ten, nine, eight…" A countdown later, they jumped, emerging from Warp near the Collector ship, all of the Normandy's guns already charged and ready should anything occur.

* * *

A/N: Sorry again it was so short, but the plot thickens slightly, it seems that when John thinks about Liara intimately or is truly in need of help, she can hear it, how does that happen? Find out in a later update.


	22. Collecting Collector Cruisers

A/N: As for why I keep picking mostly-female teams is that I prefer a bunch of good specialists with maybe one or two generalists. The male ones are mostly two-skill. I prefer either singular focus or even spread. The only male who has even spread would probably be Thane. Everyone else is two-skill, except Grunt and Mordin, I think.

If you want an analysis of the team members, review and say so, but I maintain that the females outdo the males.

* * *

Chapter 22: Collecting Collector Cruisers

_CSC Normandy, January 18, 3871_

"We got visual, reminds me of a larger version of an Infinity T2 Cruiser with the bridge thing and the curved, lobed armour, but not in a good way." Joker said grimly as they hung there as if in limbo near the dormant enemy ship, which was twice their length and no doubt over thirty times their mass, with all guns trained on said enemy ship, the Normandy sitting perpendicular to the Collector vessel and ready to strafe sideways if it moved.

"Very low emissions, passive IR suggests most systems are offline, thrusters are cold too." EDI stated.

Joker frowned at the blue ball that was EDI's avatar "Thing's twice as long as we are, how did the Turians take it out?"

EDI bobbed in a shrug "Don't know, Omni and Soothsayer aren't picking up any hull breaches or mass effect fields, seems the ship's drives are cold…"

Shepard frowned deeply "That means it wasn't offline, it's a trap, but a useful one, Joker, when the cruiser activates, be ready to blow its main gun away if it fires, then wait until we're back onboard to annihilate the rest of the ship, got it?" He switched on the PA "All crew members get ready for boarding actions, Jedore, Miranda, Thane, Kasumi, Grunt, Samara, Jack and Tali with me. Garrus, Mordin and Jacob, you three stay here and help hold the ship, just in case they try boarding us." He walked off.

Down in the mess, Jacob, Garrus and Mordin shared a look "Does anyone think Shepard likes his women too much?" Garrus was first to ask.

Jacob was silent for a moment "I think it's because you two have the best heavy weapons for line-holding, and we can use them in the ship without much risk."

Mordin blinked as he pulled his gauntlets from his torso piece's Quantum Storage Space "Logical conclusion, also, we… or rather I, may be simply getting old."

* * *

_Ilium, January 18, 3871_

"Ugh." Liara ran her hands through her head crest in frustration "Why are my e-mails just not getting through?" She didn't know it was because the Normandy II was operating off the grid, even the galactic grid of the Cybran Network.

* * *

_Collector Cruiser, January 18, 3871_

"I've never seen a ship like this before." Samara adjusted her grip on her GLMG.

"It's like a hive, for insects." Grunt said, clarifying after realizing he may have meant Zerg, which actually weren't that weak as opponents, except his clan was a bit too overpowered.

EDI spoke up "Penetrating scans located a data node for uplink, it's marked on your HUD and nav points have been plotted."

"Got it, EDI, moving out." Shepard called before the transmission box on his HUD went away.

They took off at a steady jog, the Omni sensors not picking up any enemies, until they slowed and stopped in front of a pile of dead colonists and parts of dead colonists. Their independent colony status was evident from the lack of any factional or Coalition insignia on their clothing. Shepard gritted his teeth in irritation, there was a reason no Coalition colonies had come under attack, and it wasn't because of "The Coalition doing this" as some colonists believed, it was because of the Novax Defence Satellites in orbit over all Coalition colonies firing on the Collector ships whenever they approached. Needless to say, the Collectors didn't try again after the first time.

"Lots of dead meat." Grunt said, poking one of the detached limbs with his armoured foot.

"Perhaps they were used for testing, if they were a control group, they would have been discarded at the end of the experiment." Samara suggested.

Jedore lifted a severed arm out of the pile before dropping it with a dull slapping noise "I think we just found a convenient reason to be even more brutal at killing Collectors, eh, Tali?"

The Quarian was clenching down on her flamethrower in anger "Damn right."

Shepard held up a hand "Guys, there are worse things than death, like being a test subject…"

"It is important to seek whatever solace we can in the face of tragedy." Samara said diplomatically.

Grunt snorted "Whatever, dead is dead… OW! Who did that?" He rubbed the back of his helmet gingerly.

Shepard looked around and rolled his eyes, the absence of a certain Master Thief from visibility was very telling. "Come on, guys, let's move." And so they did move, until they reached a control terminal next to a pod containing a dead Collector

"That's a Collector, were they experimenting on one of their own?" Miranda questioned.

Shepard ignored the squad chatter behind him for now as the threat board was clear "EDI, I'm uploading the data from this terminal, see if you can make anything of it."

"Hmm… they were running baseline genetic comparisons between their species and humanity." EDI's blue spherical avatar in the transmission box still reminded Shepard of QAI's avatar… but it wasn't as distinct as before.

Shepard cocked an eyebrow "They looking for similarities?"

"Don't know why they're doing it but the data shows something remarkable… a quad-strand DNA structure, identical to data collected from ancient ruins, only the Protheans are known to have this structure…why that is… is unknown."

Shepard and squad gaped wide enough to fly CZARs (500-m diameter disks) through "The Protheans… didn't vanish, they're just working for the Reapers now…"

EDI shook her avatar "These are no longer Protheans, Shepard. Their genes show extensive signs of re-write, even on top of the obvious re-write symptoms in normal Prothean DNA collected from ruins. The Reapers have repurposed them to suit their needs."

Shepard nodded and turned to the squad, almost staggering under the weight of the revelation "The Reapers didn't wipe out the Protheans, they turned them into monsters and enslaved them… still, they're working for the Reapers now and we have to stop them."

Thane looked down at the Collector body and shook his head "No species should have to suffer through that."

Shepard hummed approval "Let's find what we need before the Collectors reactivate this vessel and we're forced to blow it to scrap. Move out." They kept moving, coming to a large room with many pods above and ahead of them, some of them clearly occupied "EDI, any life signs in those pods? Collector ambush forces, maybe?"

"No, Shepard, no bio-signs detected. Jeff and I have determined however that this is the same Collector Cruiser that hit the first Normandy and Horizon."

Shepard shook his head "Too much of a coincidence, EDI, keep the weapons online and ready to fire… what the fuck?" They'd rounded a corner into a massive open area of the ship with countless pods.

"Damn, they could harvest every human in the Independent Colonies and they might not be able to fill these… Their target must be the Coalition itself." Kasumi whistled before looking around. "Hey, there's the command console we're looking for!"

"Where are all the Collectors?" Tali wondered, noticing Jedore slap her hand over her mouth a bit late.

"Don't tempt fate, Tali, that which you just said was almost as bad as saying 'how bad can it be'." The ex-merc hissed, drawing her weapons and looking around.

Shepard rolled his eyes before patching into the console "EDI, I'm uplinking the ship to you, have fun."

"Data mine in progress…" a flickering red Collector holo replaced EDI for a moment before the transmission box closed.

"That can't be good…" Joker said "There was a power surge, Shepard, how are things on your end?"

"I managed to divert the majority of the overcharge to the cloaking system, it's still working off the energy but we'll be fine, no accidental weapon fire. You were right, Shepard, it's a trap!"

Shepard and co tapped their feet as their platform rose "I could use a little help here, EDI, you got anything?"

"I'm having trouble here, someone else is in the system… ah, got rid of it." The platform stopped spinning and the squad rolled their optics at the over-dramatization of the whole affair, adjusting their weapon grips in readiness for battle. "I am fighting Collector firewalls at over 8000 nodes, they're pathetic compared to Coalition work… there, regained control of the platform, Shepard, fight off these guys and I'll move you. Anyways, there's something here about the Shadow Broker, but it's way too garbled for me to get anything out of it… I'm sending what's left of the data to the Coalition, a safe data dump Doctor Brackman assigned us just for this data-gathering mission."

Shepard smirked and opened fire on the platforms of incoming Collectors, almost like a battleship duel "knew you wouldn't let us down, EDI."

"I always work at optimal capacity." The transmission box closed.

"Did you get us what we needed?" They were back in Infantry Ball formation now, cycling and firing constantly.

"I found data that could help us successfully navigate the Omega-4 Relay." Shepard ducked under a Collector Assassin's beam before it could take any of his shields off. "Also got the Turian signal that lured us here, the Collectors sent it, and it is rather unusual. Standard Turian secondary encryption is corrupted here, there was no way Doctor Brackman could have been fooled… wait, I am picking up more Coalition ship signatures around us now, moving into range of the Collector Cruiser, assorted Coalition stealth Frigates and Corvettes, a full Frigate Group, seems your brother James was tasked by the Doctor to back us up if a firefight occurred."

Shepard waved it off "Tell him to back off, the Normandy can handle it, if we have to, we can run too. We got warp and slipspace drive now, not just ME and Quantum."

"Why'd Doctor Brackman send us into a trap?" Joker asked.

Shepard answered while shooting more Collectors. "He knew we could handle it, and he gave us more than enough back-up just in case."

Joker gasped before speaking "Commander, another problem, the Cruiser's powering up, get out of there before I have to blast it, if I disable its main guns, you might get hurt in the process."

EDI shrugged again "I don't have full control of the ship but I'll do my best, Shepard. Sending coordinates for extraction."

The Scions on the slowly orbiting platform going around them, having finally annoyed Shepard enough, received a Nanodart to the face that vaporized it and left a large crater in the platform after it threw another pesky Shockwave.

"Fucking hell, Shepard, how many waves are we going to wait for? We could just fly out of this mess, remember?" Jack asked as she blasted another trio of Collectors into tatters with her own Shockwave.

"Are you saying you're not enjoying this, Jack?" Grunt inclined his head while another Collector shattered under his Sonic Pulse Shotgun fire.

Jack snorted "Fuck that, it's getting boring and way too time-consuming, picking my nose is more challenging than this shit."

Two more Scions arrived with the next, larger, wave of Collectors, and perhaps the most annoying noise Shepard had ever heard rang out, AGAIN (the 4th time in the battle so far) "DIRECT INTERVENTION IS NECESSARY."

"SHUT UP! SHUT THE FUCK UP!" Shepard bellowed, standing up and loosing two Nanodarts one after the other toward the Harbinger-Possessed Collector "SCREW SHIELDS, KILL THEM, KILL THEM ALL!"

On his order, the squad rose form behind cover in unison, letting their over-shields take the heat while they poured death on the enemy. Needless to say, after two 400-kg TNT equivalent explosions, the Harbinger-possessed Collector was a large crater in the platform.

EDI bobbed in approval from the transmission box on his HUD once the entire last wave stopped moving "Moving you to the closest path to the shuttle, Shepard."

"Does anyone else think we could FLY faster than this?" Jedore grumbled as the platform moved off.

"Does anyone NOT think so?" Jack growled in response, there was no answer "Go figure…" the ex-convict mumbled just before they stepped off the platform, their over-shields already fully firmed up.

Resistance was heavy, and more than once the ball had to rotate to expose fresh overlapping shields to the incoming Collector Particle Beams, which were relatively effective, though still inferior in firepower to even Laser SMGs. LSMGs were weakest of all Coalition guns, but were the ones with the highest emergency battery charge and firing rate for a one-handed weapon. Thanks to their ball tactics though, the team left nothing but a trail of dead Collectors behind them as they steamrollered their way toward the shuttle. They ended up in a small room with a closed door, which EDI opened for them, before moving into a level hallway with close quarters combat against countless Drones…

"It's in these times when you wish we had bayonets, no?" Shepard called as he smashed another Collector in the face with his LSMG while still firing, resulting in a quartet—two per barrel—punching through the inside pair of eyes on the Collector's head and the corpse flying away form a well-aimed kick just before he blasted the next one with a long burst of LBR fire, making it seemingly flutter in the rain of laser bolts before collapsing while he fired his LSMG one-handed into another Collector.

"Agreed, Shepard, bayonets would be nice… chainsaw bayonets… even more so." Grunt grinned at the thought before watching a sheet of fire ripple across his vision as Tali, her shield and OS recharged, charged past him, spewing fiery death from her flamethrower "Never mind, perhaps flamethrowers would be better…"

Shepard sighed as he watched Tali screeching like an angry banshee as she burnt the Collectors ahead of them to a crisp, giving the squad a respite for their shields and over-shields to firm up again, of course, they extended the OS bubbles to cover the Quarian. "You've been playing Gears of War, haven't you, Grunt?" The silence, well, as silent as a more-or-less melee battle could be, was enough answer for Shepard.

"All clear, Shepard." Tali turned, the front of her armour stained with soot and blackened blood from burning Collectors.

"Alright, Tali, take a breather, center position in the ball for you. I'll take point." The Infantry Ball tactic was effectively the eight points of a compass, except they were forward, back, left and right as the main ones, and the center guy, with nine people in the ball. Smaller balls meant fewer people around the outside circle, with a seven-person group being the smallest that could still count as a ball. Larger balls featured more people inside the outer circle. They advanced to the next room and Shepard quickly realized it was safe enough for the real heavy weapons to come out as more Collectors flooded in from ahead "Everyone, heavy weapons authorized! Jedore, Grunt, Jack, take to the walkway on the left for field of fire!"

Collector Guardians started planting down shields as they hit the ground for where they'd flown in while drones rushed the group's position, they were met by volleys of Temporal Fizz Launcher, Ultra-Light Phasic Autogun and of course Flamethrower fire just before the real crowd control weapons whirred to life and began spewing hypersonic osmium-iridium penetrators into the swarming Collectors from the walkway, with Jedore propping her Temporal Fizz Launcher on a crate and using it, along with her LBR in Assault Mode, to cover the other end of the walkway from any Collectors that tried coming up. Any Collector that survived the Fizz Launcher would be blasted about and be easy prey for her LBR.

"ASSUMING DIRECT CONTROL." Needless to say, that was followed by two Nanodarts crossing the room in annoyance, though Shepard had become the target of every Collector present when he popped up for two seconds and lost over-shields as a result.

"Kasumi, you blast him next time, and stay cloaked when you pop up." Shepard called, watching his over-shield bar regenerate on his HUD.

"Got it, Shepard." The Master Thief called.

Two more waves of Collectors (including a failed attempt to land on the left side walkway) later, the crew trudged into the next room, their shields and OS bars charging again while their weapons were still fully functional. EDI came over the comm. just before they rounded the corner "The door at the end of the room has been opened, Shepard, go for it!"

Sadly, there were around twenty minor problems, and one huge-ass problem, that sat or hovered in the way. "Everyone cloak, now, and fly over them, maintain unit cohesion." Shepard ordered and the squad did as they were told. Unfortunately, the door closed again, along with the entrance shutters for the Collectors, as they flew over the Praetorian. "Fuck, well, get back to positions, surround them," he designated the nav-points using his HUD as they all hovered in mid-air, invisible "and let's come down on them like 2600 tons of bricks." Thane's wire frame image on his HUD gave him a pointed look at that "What? That's the approximate weight of a Brick Armoured Assault Bot without any upgrades!"

A chorus of facepalms in the empty air made the Collectors look up in bewilderment as the squad members flew to their positions, just before Shepard signalled weapons free. The Collectors were still busy looking up at the source of the noise when they were bombarded from all sides by heavy weapons fire, the squad only ducking behind cover when the Praetorian tried to fire on the position of a particular squad member, though they still kept up with the grenade-chucking. The deck of the Collector Cruiser shook with the massive volleys of explosions that rocked even the floating Infantry Support unit that was known as a Praetorian. Tali received a shallow gouge across her faceplate when she stayed out of cover for too long and her structural field collapsed on her when she was moving from cover to cover. It was to be noted that considering the amount of fire it could take, a Praetorian was approximately equal in durability to a Mongoose T2 Assault Bot (or a Geth Colossus), though far, FAR less damaging.

The squad were firing all heavy weapons at the beast, and slowly wearing it down with saturation strikes of Sonance Grenades every few seconds. It still however nearly a minute before the damned thing went down, well, parts did, the rest was disintegrated by Nanodart fire.

* * *

Another long hallway later… the group was met by a rising tide of Collector troops, including Husks. Unfortunately for Tali, who'd chosen the spearhead role for the mission, there was now a new type of husk in play… a type that exploded on death. The net result was that Tali was thrown backward into Shepard, nearly throwing the Commander off-balance. The critical gap in her flamethrower coverage in the close quarters battle was barely covered by massed Temporal Fizz Launcher fire slowing down the oncoming husks with their Chronotron dilation effects. Tali shook herself as she got back onto her feet and let out a roar of fury. With the words "I will leave a dark cloud!" she opened her throttle to maximum output and laid down a huge arc of fire upon the oncoming Collector troops, ignoring the few Collector Particle Beams that stabbed at her over-shields as she marched forward implacably.

"Follow Tali, cover her, and keep her under OS coverage!" Shepard called as he fired another LBR sniper bolt through a Collector Drone's head, killing it.

EDI's face appeared "New hostile type detected, designation: Abomination, explodes on death, recommend caution."

"I would recommend you tell us about that sort of thing earlier, EDI." Tali said frostily, her transmission box showing her moving side to side impatiently inside the enlarged helmet she wore (her armour fit over the enviro-suit, but it was still mostly a snug fit, as Ken Donnelly had commented on before). "Before one blows up in our faces, that is."

"Guys, head to the high ground on the right!" Shepard called, everyone clicked affirmative and the ball rotated slightly before setting off to that part of the room. Scions, Husks, Abominations and of course Collectors rushed them with wild abandon, with the result that on more than a few occasions things got very personal very quickly.

Grunt was swinging an Abomination like a club while blasting more husks to liquefied… whatever they were made of… with his Sonic Pulse Shotgun. The Abomination he held by the leg was beginning to glow, and Grunt threw it like a stick grenade toward several Scions further off. Needless to say, it worked, knocking all three Scions to the ground, if only temporarily, with the blast. Right beside him, Shepard was roaring louder than the Krogan while hacking a Collector's arm off using a chest claw torn off by another Collector "This is when you REALLY wish there was a Hydralisk on our side!" The Commander bellowed while spraying more Collectors and Husks with a hail of LBR Assault Mode fire.

Thane's LBR fired from behind them, sending a sniper mode Overcharge shot straight through over a dozen Collectors and husks before the spray of vaporized matter dissipated the beam. Jack and Samara were busy doing crowd control from their end of things with continuous volleys of Shockwaves and Warps, reserving the latter for the Scions only. Phasic Shotgun and GLMG fire rippled outward from the female biotics in waves. Jedore was dual-wielding her Temporal Fizz Launcher and LBR (assault mode) as only a Soldier could, slowing down and cutting down Collectors in pure rage. Tali was still leaving a trail of dense smoke and blazing flames wherever she went. In fact, she was doing so well her OS and Shield bars on everyone's HUD Squad Panels were barely dropping, and they could follow her progress by simply watching the cloud of dust, ash, smoke and Collector/husk fragments she was throwing up following a law of Anime, almost. Miranda and Kasumi were putting down SMG fire (and biotics in Miranda's case) wherever the others couldn't react in time to the swarming horde, since ULPAs had too little firing rate and Infantry Nanodart Launchers carried too much concussive force with them.

Shepard saw the situation was getting worse despite the ever-mounting smouldering, jellified or otherwise destroyed mountains of Collector corpses "Grunt, Jack, fall back, grab your Gauss Chainguns!" It was time to bring out the best crowd-control weapons they had with them… which they hadn't grabbed earlier since there wasn't enough time. Less than ten seconds after he issued that order, Gauss Chaingun fire began sweeping the battlefield, sending a thick, punishing spread of Gauss munitions scything across the field, only leaving those hostiles in a line to Tali still standing. Needless to say, those died pretty quickly too when the rest of the squad shot them selectively.

When the smoke finally cleared form Tali's final position, the squad saw the Quarian through the darkness, swaying on her feet, and Kasumi rushed to catch her. The two women had bonded over one being often thought of as a thief and the other one actually being THE Master Thief. Despite Quarian bias against thieves in general, Tali had become fast friends with Kasumi over the issue of taking from the overly wealthy and giving to the desperately poor.

The Master Thief was the one to stumble and nearly fall to the ground (in laughter) as she saw what Tali had really been up to—swaying from foot to foot impatiently waiting for the rest of the squad to catch up to her. "Hey guys, I got Joker a little something he might like." Tali called as they all neared.

Shepard tilted his head inquisitively "What is it Tali?"

"Collector Steaks, thoroughly cooked of course, figured Joker's had enough laughs at my expense that I should give him a little compensation." Tali pointed to the large hunk she'd ripped off the back of a Collector that was laying facedown on the ground, obviously killed by a Phasic Shotgun blast to the head.

Grunt snorted "Tali, we Krogan are not known for being picky, but judging by the _smell_…" it was an environmental awareness feature, though all toxins were screened out by the scanners, very low levels of scent molecules were allowed across the suit filters "That is REALLY unappetizing."

Samara frowned "Many delicious foods smell pungent, and vice versa…" The Justicar froze up as her own suit filters caught some of the scent molecules "That is bad…" She switched on her full containment protocols before speaking again "In my thousand years… I have yet to see a pilot curl up and die at the scent of something that is not a toxic gas, I have a feeling however that I will soon see one."

The rest of the squad had all switched on full containment in the time they took walking over to Tali, if for nothing else than the smell of well-roasted and somewhat burnt Collector meat. Shepard was issuing orders as soon as everyone's over-shields were up, though personal shields were still climbing from around half for everyone as they moved down the next lengthy hall… "Is anyone else reminded of the classic installation mission from your typical RTS or shooter game?" That was Kasumi, bringing another volley of assorted facepalms, groans, sighs and in Grunt's case head-butting his shotgun with a groan right before he had to use some Omni-gel to repair said shotgun (he'd forgotten to expand his structural fields to it, a mistake he immediately remedied). That was in turn right before weapons were levelled and readied as a stream of red contacts appeared on their HUD "Radar" from up ahead, the range greatly expanded by Tali's upgraded Omni/Radar set.

Husks flooded toward the Marine Ball in horde formation, also known as an unorganized mob. Tali, Miranda and Kasumi dropped to their knees and began laying down fire, in Tali's case literally. Jack and Grunt were between them, though standing up, spraying Gauss Chaingun munitions that punched holes in the walls and husks. The rest of the group were standing as well, pouring damage downrange though everyone kept an eye out for contacts from behind. Against the organized battle line, the horde of relatively fragile targets didn't stand a chance, burning and being torn to scrap like so much toilet paper.

An absurdly huge swarm of husks later, the group finally made it to the evac point, more enemies on their heels, with the Restorer hanging off the side of the ship, some distance away, with the airlocks opened invitingly. "Fly, boys, fly!" Shepard bellowed as he gunned down another Collector Guardian with his LBR. Miranda led the flight group, with Shepard last to leave. It was their usual procedure, Shepard would be first in and last out while the second-in-command available on the particular operation was last in and first out, though an exception would be made for Tali when facing hordes of flammable targets, assuming Miranda, Garrus and Jacob were not on the mission.

The Restorer's airlock began to fill up with heavily-armed soldiers that covered each other as they flew toward the airlock. Collector Particle Beams glanced off the Restorer's Over-shield. It was an expensive upgrade, and opinions were divided over field deployments in ACU battles, but the programming self-refinement that was termed "Veterancy" tended to encourage Commanders to use it, if only to lengthen survival so Veterancy could be accumulated. The Quad Light Laser turned as Shepard himself made the flight and fired off a volley at the Collectors standing around shooting at the T3 AA Gunship. No more fire hit the Gunship and the OS bar of said gunship stopped flickering from 99% to 100% and back. The Quad Light Laser, controlled by EDI instead of the usual combat VI, returned to the usual forward-facing position almost lazily as the airlock cycled and the Gunship abruptly soared off back toward the Normandy and into its protective shield bubble. Sadly, they hadn't figured out hull-hugging "Personal Shields" for starships yet, but they'd taken the experience of using Bulwark T2 Shield Ships and melded it with Seraphim shielding technology to produce the current shield bubbles.

"Joker, don't kill the Collector ship, let it go." EDI said as the crew returned to the Normandy "I have a tracer that will allow us to get a good idea of where the Collector Homeworld is."

Shepard nodded, issuing orders from the elevator "Understood, EDI, Joker, listen to her. James, back off your ships, let the Cruiser get away, we can always blow it to bits whenever we need to."

James sounded slightly sceptical when he sent his transmission "If you say so bro." But his Frigate Group jumped away via Quantum FTL anyways just before the Collector Cruiser jumped away via Mass Effect FTL, apparently knowing it couldn't defeat the bigger, more badass Normandy II.

Joker laid back in his pilot's chair and turned on the PA as a transmission request tab came up in front of him "Call coming in from Doc Brackman, Commander, figure you've got a few words for him too."

"Hello my child, looks like EDI extracted some interesting data before the Collector ship fled, oh yes, interesting indeed…" The old Doctor's hologram said sagely.

"Don't 'my child' me, Doc, you set us up without a warning, better have a damned good reason for it." Shepard growled.

Brackman at least had the decency to look slightly ashamed "I'm sorry, my child, I expected you to be able to figure it out on your own, and I knew the Normandy II could take on that ship, even sent a Frigate Group from James' small fleet to aid you just in case. We needed information on the Omega 4 Relay, which required direct access to Collector databanks, it was too good an opportunity to pass up."

"True, but I still don't like this sort of surprise… yeah we Cybrans tend to be very competent, but haven't your plans fallen on their faces before when you relied on our competence? You could have at least told me the plan…"

Brackman actually scratched his scalp at that "Telling you the plan could have tipped the collectors off, not that the appearance of a ship half as long as their own next to them wasn't hint enough… I wouldn't have sent you in if I didn't believe you could succeed, besides, I sent you backup, didn't I?"

Shepard sighed "Yeah, you're right, so, what'd we find?"

Princess Rhianne Burke came into the conversation "EDI confirmed our suspicions, I'm still not comfortable working with an AI after the QAI debacle, but…" Rhianne shrugged "…she's reliable… or so Raynor's Adjutant told us after she probed her coding. Reapers and Collector ships use an advanced IFF system the relays recognize. All we need to do is get our hands on one of those IFF codes."

Shepard rubbed his temples "I was just on the Collector ship! Why didn't you tell me about the IFF? We could have disabled the ship's drives with a few shots then gone in for it!"

President Hall, re-elected again for what would be his third, non-consecutive, term in office, butted in "As the Princess just said, EDI just confirmed it, there wouldn't have been time to find and extract the IFF, but we have options."

President Ratheen spoke next "We know from our legends of a place in an otherwise normal ocean, a huge sunken area without explanation, now that we have returned to this, our home reality, we have found it again. You know of it as Roanoke Abyss."

Shepard's mind flashed to the description of the ACU Simulator scenario that was called Roanoke Abyss. "_An unnatural, sunken area of an otherwise normal ocean, many believe the Abyss was created by aliens for some unknown purpose. Though disproved by scientific surveys, the mere rumour of possible alien technology was enough for all three factions to fight savagely for control of the area._" He gaped "You mean… it wasn't just an impact crater?"

"Oh it was an impact crater alright, from a mass accelerator… a VERY old Mass Accelerator. We've traced the trajectory and though the weapon burned up in a star a long time ago, most likely propelled by the recoil of its own gun functioning, we found the target, a 37-million-year-old defunct Reaper." President Hall said, crossing his arms over his chest.

* * *

_37 million years before present…_

Nazara and her buddy—some of the other Reapers said "boyfriend" since her friend identified with the masculine side of the organics he'd been assembled from, she'd slapped them for it—were wandering around, having a good time playing "Whack the Asteroid" (what would later become known as soccer). They were using eight tentacles each for the players, the two Reapers stayed on either side of the playing field that was between them, like a screen separating them, making it a fairer game since their tentacles wouldn't end up knotting together. Their idyllic game was shattered by the sudden 600-ton slug that punched through her friend's shields and body at 40% the speed of light. Her friend made a brief mental gurgle before he went silent, his systems shutting down as his consciousness faded.

"NOOOO!" Nazara screamed in fury, heading off in the direction of the shot's origin only to find a debris cloud that was all that remained of the ship that had fired the slug; apparently it had self-destructed in the process of doing so. She sensed a small disturbance in local gravitic and EM fields, but she didn't know what it was. No one would until roughly 37 million years later, when the Seraphim first discovered Quantum Technology and Rifting technology, due to the destruction of most of the Mass Relays in their area of space by as-of-yet unknown factors. Nazara didn't know any of that, she did know however that the Reapers had to be more vicious in their purging and come every 50,000 typical sentient species years instead of every 100,000, and keep an eye out for this "U.N.S.C." whatever those symbols meant, they were a threat to her kind's existence.

* * *

_Another string universe…_

"That was probably the most epic fail I have seen in a long time." Shaw said flatly, looking at his buddy, Fujikawa. "I told you the idea of a 'MAC' as you termed it was stupid, look what you did!" One of the co-inventors of the Slipspace drive gestured toward the space once occupied by the anomaly that had opened with the sheer amount of energy they'd put into the slipspace drive so it could distort space as necessary to fire such a huge slug at such high speed without using a mass accelerator the length of the Moon. The anomaly closed before they could get any accurate readings off it, but whatever it was, it couldn't have been good.

Fujikawa scratched his head, grinning in embarrassment. "I never expected that… wonder where the test ship went… Maybe I should simply stick to kilogram-level slugs in weapons instead, and not try bringing the slipspace core into it."

* * *

_CSC Normandy, January 18, 3871_

_Present Time, This String Universe…_

"We found it damaged and trapped in the gravity of a brown dwarf." Rhianne continued the line of speech.

John frowned "I saw what Sovereign did to the Citadel Fleet, hard to think one shot could stop something like that."

Rhianne looked grim "This Reaper is far, FAR larger than Sovereign, measures in at about ten kilometres, enough to fight an ACU battle on. We suspect it may be a ship of the line for them, while Sovereign was a corvette designed to insert into the Citadel and open the Relay there. Anyways, the vessel is a relic from a battle waged while primates took their first steps on Earth. There's no trace of the species that took the shot, perhaps it was their one moment of defiance before being wiped out."

"Aren't brown dwarves stars that didn't quite make it?"

Hall nodded "Simple but accurate, they're gas giants that don't quite have the mass of stars. Expect extreme winds and temperatures. A mass effect field keeps the Reaper in orbit, likely a response to external threats. It's stable, but I won't call it safe…"

Shepard sighed "Alright, I believe you guys, what's the catch this time?"

Hall bit his lip "It was a UEF team that found the Reaper… we've lost contact with them, and before you even suggest it, Shepard, analysis of husks show CAR fire won't bring them back. You'll need that IFF if you want to go through the Omega-4 Relay. The coordinates have been sent to Joker already."

Brackman spoke next "We didn't risk your lives for no reason, Shepard, we now have valuable intel and will tighten security around human space. Stealth Frigate Groups will patrol the outlying colonies."

Shepard frowned and crossed his arms over his chest "What about tensions with the Citadel?"

Hall waved it off "Admiral and Councillor Anderson can handle it, and if it comes to it, we can take them, no problem, so long as we survive more than about a day, which we will."

"I believe what Doctor Brackman and General Hall are saying is 'Screw the Citadel, we need to protect humanity from becoming guinea pigs.'" Ratheen said dryly.

Shepard turned slightly toward the blue ball avatar of his ship's AI "EDI, tell the crew to assemble, we've got a lot to talk about."

EDI bobbed in confirmation "Of course, Shepard."

* * *

_CSC Normandy, January 18, 3871_

"So Brackman wasn't fooling with us, it was fairly obvious with a Frigate Group backing us up, did he really have to tell us about it?"

"Lied to us, used us, needed access to Collector databanks, necessary risk." Mordin gabbled

Shepard nodded "Agreed, so, EDI, you sure this IFF will work?"

"Yes, I have also determined the location of the Collector homeworld." EDI put a big pointer right on the galactic core.

"That's odd…" Miranda said "But makes sense, they wouldn't want to be found."

Garrus shook his head "Can't be, the core is just black holes and exploding stars, there aren't any really habitable planets there…"

Mordin chipped in again "Could be a space station, protected by mass effect fields and radiation shields."

"You sure the Collectors have that sort of technology?" Samara asked.

"The Collectors are servants of our real enemy, and we've seen what their masters can do. They built the Mass Relays and the Citadel, who's to say they can't build a space station surrounded by black holes? Hell, we've managed to RECLAIM mass from Black holes before, it's not that difficult… assuming you can hold position. No wonder no one ever came back from a trip through Omega 4…"

"Logic indicates a small safe zone to be on the other side of the relay, where ships can survive." EDI said "Standard transit protocols wouldn't allow it, drift of several thousand kilometres common and that would be fatal there. The IFF must trigger the relay to use more advanced, encrypted protocols."

Shepard grinned "EDI, we've learned how to repair a Mass Relay's hardware, how about the software?"

"Sadly, Shepard, no, our Ship Gantries and Deep Space Explorers can repair external damage to relays, but we haven't managed to get into the software yet."

"Alright, let's get after that IFF, guys, Joker, charge up the jump drives but don't jump until I say so, any concerns guys?"

Miranda frowned "It's a derelict Reaper Shepard, what if the Collectors are waiting for us? We may want to build our team further before we take that risk…"

Jack snorted, picking at her nails "Cheerleader, I highly doubt we're going to get more dossiers…"

Jedore talked for the first time in the conference before Miranda could retort and the situation could devolve "Miranda, be reasonable, we don't have any more dossiers and it might take a while to get the IFF online anyways."

"Well… yes, I guess you're right, Jedore, let's get ready to… where's Shepard?" The group, other than Tali, were busy looking around, until Miranda noted something "Tali, what are you doing?"

The Quarian let out a "Hmm?" as she looked up "Uh, texting?" She shifted nervously.

"Whoa are you…" Jack craned her head so she could look at Tali's console. "James Shepard, are you fucking serious? Is this a love boat or a warship?"

The rather loud chorus of "Both" from the crew was almost disheartening for Jack.

* * *

_Bridge, CSC Normandy, January 18, 3871_

"You had me so worried when you were on that ship… thank goodness for EDI." Kelly said as Shepard entered the bridge.

Shepard raised an eyebrow "That sounds like more than just professional concern, Kelly."

Kelly smiled "You're not just my commander…" _Oh how true, Kelly girl, how true…_ She thought to herself.

Shepard's mental alarms were going off at that before he muted them to prevent a headache before Kelly spoke again. "You're my friend." He felt relief wash over him at that, he had enough on his plate i.e. the Collector Problem, the Reapers, knocking some sense into the Council and of course his failing/failed relationship with Liara without having multiple women fighting each other for him.

Kelly was thinking that shed like Shepard to be more than that "EDI brought you back to me, if she had a body, I'd give her a big hug."

* * *

_AI Core, CSC Normandy, January 18, 3871_

The corners of EDI's lips curled up in the darkness of her area of the AI Core, away from the exposed consoles of the Core and the exposed spaces that disguised who, or what, she really was. She made a note that Kelly now owed her one hug, which she'd collect after she revealed her true identity and maybe actually got a body to go after Joker with.

* * *

_Bridge, CSC Normandy, January 18, 3871_

Shepard chuckled before poking fun at Kelly's words "I'm standing right here, where's my hug?" He was rather surprised when Kelly stepped forward from her console and wrapped her arms around his body, pressing her body to his. _She's soft… and warm._ Some part of his mind purred before it died under the punishing feet of forty-five thousand tons of purely mental (not the psycho variety) Galactic Colossus coming down on it.

"Welcome back, sir." Kelly whispered into John's ear, inhaling rather deeply before she said so, inhaling his scent, a light scent that wasn't the classic heady musk but still masculine and quite pleasant at the same time. She realized she was enjoying her breasts being pressed against his chest a bit too much with how she was shifting slightly and drew back "Anyways, how can I help you, Commander?"

"Just checking in with you, I needed to go talk to Joker about his opinion on the mission. I'll see you around, Kelly." Shepard nodded to his Yeoman before walking off toward the cockpit section of the Bridge. He was completely unaware of the fact that said Yeoman's eyes were glued to his ass until he disappeared into the cockpit.

Kelly shivered, his authoritative voice, the way he treated his crew, the manner he treated her, his scent and the feel of him, no wonder why she was caught up in the competition with Miranda, Jack, Jedore and possibly even Samara… All of them were better than her in some way or another, Kelly sighed, she didn't have a chance, did she?

* * *

A/N: I feel sorry for John… and myself, I simply can't get away from writing fanfiction for long enough, ugh!


	23. Identity Theft

A/N: I doubt I'll bring the UNSC into this universe, at least not until very late in Reclaimers, and that's the only possible time I will even consider letting them in, but still, I think I made a point about how stupidly huge the numbers for MAC guns are in Halo canon. A Covenant fleet, assuming their weapons are of similar yield, would take maybe half an hour to glass a planet, not days, hence I think the whole MAC number thing is STUPID, even 1% waste heat could probably vaporize a UNSC frigate's entire mass no problem, or at least burn it out.

Then again, I do think the Spartans need to get shown up by what humans in the 3800s are like here. Also, Catherine Halsey needs to be put through the augmentation procedure herself to get a taste of what the fuck it's like, and let's not forget the Coalition's tradition of turning a blind eye to guard-killing when liberating concentration camps (mentioned at the Jack mission e-mail from Coalition Command). Oh, and let's not forget ONI, Yolona Oss Missiles, multiple missiles, needed right there.

I am NOWHERE NEAR done with loyalty missions, I just want Legion along for some of them. And I'll explain why Mass Relays can't be mass accelerators in a codex entry eventually… probably during the Reaper War, but the mechanism by which Mavors and such function (increasing local mass to store kinetic energy so the barrel won't be absurdly long) should be a big hint. Near-zero mass, low kinetic energy, absurdly huge mass, high kinetic energy, Relays do the former for "high speed, low drag", and yes, that's a Red Alert 2 quote.

* * *

Chapter 23: Identity Theft

_Bridge, CSC Normandy, January 19, 3871_

"Looks big, maybe we should set up a base on it?" Joker ventured, looking at scanner returns from the Reaper's signature as the Normandy cut smoothly through the roiling winds of the gas giant, the inertial compensators dealing with any turbulence and keeping the vessel "in place". The shield bubble was holding, without even any rippling, after all, it was within their design parameters. "There's a second ship alongside the Reaper, no IFF but the Soothsayer profiles it as Geth."

"Geth? The science team should have been able to handle them… no, don't set up a base, too risky for the SCU." Shepard said from his position in the cargo bay, the Restorer could handle this weather, but there was no reason to use it yet. Suddenly, the external wind readouts died down to nothing.

"We just passed into the Reaper's mass effect field, it's still active." Joker commented. "Eye of the hurricane, huh?"

Shepard snorted "Yeah, let's get moving, guys, into the Restorer, Miranda, Jedore, Kasumi, stay here and hold the fort, the rest with me, ball tactics as usual, we're going to steamroller them." The Master Thief only nodded, but the others added "Stay safe" before they took up positions around the cargo bay, the most likely boarding point and also the most vulnerable part of the ship to boarding.

* * *

_Derelict Reaper, January 19, 3871_

Several thousand Citadel credits, a bunch of logs of a UEF scientist who apparently never built up his mental barriers unlike the vast majority of the population in the Coalition, and a doorway into the Reaper itself later from the small lab boat later, the Reaper's shields activated. "Joker, can we get through?"

"Negative Commander, it seems to be a personal shield type of shield, we can't get through to link up with the Reaper, it's too close to the surface."

He snorted at the cliché nature of this mess "We'll have to take down the generators from in here, any idea where they are?"

EDI responded, her usual blue ball avatar popping up in the transmission box "At the moment of activation, Omni Sensors picked up a power spike in what is most likely the mass effect or power generators. Sending coordinates now, be advised, this core is also maintaining the Reaper's altitude…"

"So when we take the core down to get out, the Reaper falls into the planet's core." Shepard deadpanned.

"And that means everyone onboard dies, I got that…" Joker sighed.

"If any helmsman can get us off this thing before it reaches crush depth, it's you, Joker, we'll make a sweep for survivors and recover what data we can before we pull out…

Joker nodded "That's what she told you to do."

Shepard rolled his eyes (Thinking _people don't pull out anymore, Joker, it's called contraceptive implants… well, not unless they _want_ to get sprayed…_) before they moved on, past some messy corpses strewn and spread across the floor, Grunt commenting "What a mess… anyone else hungry?" before Shepard accessed a freaky-ass log of two researchers finding they remember the same things, apparently only Aeon psionics/psychics and Cybran firewalls were a sure bet against indoctrination, either that or the far superior Psi-shields (compared to other factional equivalents, since the others had their own inherent defences) the UEF had to fend off such attacks, the scientists hadn't brought any of those.

They moved to the right along the walkway until red contacts began flooding in from up ahead on their HUD Radars and targeting systems. "Husks and Abominations, volley Electron Grenades!" Shepard called as he threw first before opening up with Gauss LMG, cutting down two husks in under a second with hypersonic explosive rounds.

Tali, on the other side of the catwalk, was operating her own barbeque business with her flamethrower while the rest of the squad fired through the fire and flames at the onrushing tide, throwing Grenades to clear massive holes in their ranks and allow the squad to advance. The Marine Ball rolled over short walls built out of destroyed husks as more climbed up over the edges of the walkway from every side. Grunt was using Abominations as stick grenades in addition to his own Electron Grenades (Sonance Grenades were too risky on the walkway) while Samara and Jack laid down Shockwave after Shockwave. Thane and Shepard were blasting away at full speed with their LBRs and in Shepard's case Gauss LMG as well, though the Commander wished Jedore was here with her Soldier-specific skill set of dual-wielding assault-type weapons, though Grunt sort of made up for it with his abominable stick grenade tendencies.

Jacob was also laying down GLMG fire with Samara and Shepard, mowing down the horde like grass, but it wasn't quite enough "Jack, Grunt, use Gauss Chainguns NOW! Everyone who can go to Temporal Fizz Launcher, slow them down!"

* * *

"Twenty minutes and _**N**_ Husks/Abominations mown down later…" Shepard hissed under his breath as he and the squad simply flew over the rest, dropping Electron Grenades as soon as they could be fabricated in carpet bombing style "We finally remember and revive the old tactic of carpet bombing…"

"Napalm Carpet Bombing for me, don't you forget, Shepard." Tali called as she kept pouring down blue-white fire, shaped and magnetically accelerated, not to mention manufactured, by the in reality immense output of her suit's power core helping reclaim nearby objects to obtain the mass required for such high-intensity firing, of course, when set to lower intensities, it could fabricate its own mass, enough to keep burning anyways. They darted through a convenient doorway along their route and manually cranked it shut behind them and barricaded it, it would hold the husks and abominations for a while… the few that were ahead they could manage to deal with.

"Alright, everyone, back to ball formation, let's roll!" They found more creepy logs before seeing a number of husks on the path ahead fall down dead, from someone else shooting them, by the sound of it. Shepard ran off for another terminal with credits, prompting exasperated sighs from the rest of the team, left where they were to dig in and hold the line where they were against the incoming husks and abominations from up ahead.

Perhaps the most wonderful thing about a Tomcat Autogun was that the Penetrator round could punch through whole columns of husks at once. Garrus had his deployed on the same level of terrain as the husks, and so was tearing into them with gusto. Mordin's Light Plasma Cannon was set up on a higher level for maximum use of his radial pattern splash damage. The whole group tore away at the husks, abominations, and finally Scions until there were no more. Finally they were able to move forward again, so Mordin and Garrus packed up their heavy weapons before the group moved off. Walking on a walkway that moved past some Dragon's Teeth with the research team clearly impaled on them, the squad stopped.

"Husks must be Reaper tech then, eh Shepard?" Garrus commented, deploying his Tomcat just in case.

"It is interesting that Cybran nanotech could defeat Reaper nanotech from Dragon's teeth, no?" Tali put in.

"Interesting indeed, we can't give them what they deserve, a chance to be themselves again…" Shepard had drawn his Cybran Assimilator Rifle and was stroking its barrel assembly, before he looked up "Mordin, give each Dragon's Tooth one shot to the impaled victim, if we couldn't save them, we can at least make sure the Teeth can't assimilate any survivors, not that there are likely to be any…"

After the almost ritualistic blasting of the Dragon's Teeth was done, and Shepard finished reading a freaky log that called the Reaper a "Dead god that still dreams", they passed an airlock.

The Husks that awaited them were quickly falling to sniper fire… from "Hold Fire crew!" Shepard yelled upon seeing the Geth sniper.

The seven husks down, the sniper acknowledged Shepard with "Shepard-Commander." Then the bipedal sentient machine walked off, leaving the team blinking.

"That was…" Tali started.

Jack finished "Really fucking weird?"

Samara responded, blinking as if slightly dazed "Yeah."

* * *

Ten thousand credits, another rising tide of husks of various types and much expended ammunition later, the crew was nearing the IFF and the Mass Effect Core of the Reaper when they were accosted by more husks and Abominations.

Even Grunt was annoyed of all the incessant fighting, resulting in the Abominations being thrown hard enough to bowl over a bunch of husks and start a dog pile just before dual Shockwaves from very annoyed female biotics and the Abomination itself went off in the area. Said explosions blew the whole load of them to hell.

They grabbed the IFF as they came across it, and Shepard looked down at the device before he turned to the crew "Who wants to carry this back to the ship, without using Quantum Storage for it?" The squad parted soundlessly like the Red Sea when they saw the heavy-looking item Shepard was holding up. Well, the squad minus Grunt, who hadn't been listening at the time of Shepard speaking. "Grunt, you volunteered, you can carry this back to the ship, here."

"Huh? Oh, uh… alright then, Shepard." Grunt secured the IFF module to his back before they proceeded.

The Geth sniper from before was manipulating some controls in front of the Mass Effect Core before it turned and shot four husks behind it with its pistol. Then it dropped the barrier that was in Shepard and crew's way just before being zapped by a husk's electrically charged fist and falling down from a right hook from said husk, which died instants later when Shepard's LBR ripped through its chest and then head as the Coalition Marine brought his weapon up and fired two shots in Assault Mode. The rest of the husks turned and rushed the squad, who returned fire with gusto. "Hold on, guys, I'm going to go for a Nanodart to that core!" Shepard shouted as the deck rocked with huge numbers of powerful explosions, he stood his ground and fully extended his Nanodart Launcher before levelling it at the Core, cursing when he found it to be impossible to lock on to, then he lowered the Launcher, flicked the switch to linear course, raised it again, and hit the firing button.

The rather small missile (hence the name "Nanodart") that was usually stored within the launcher even when on standby was hurled out of the barrel at high speed by powerful electromagnets and impacted the Core before the boosters on the Nanodart could even engage. The explosion rocked the ship in more ways than one as the Core auto-shutdown to prevent a Core Overload. The squad pushed forward until they got to the knocked-out Geth after Joker said something along the lines of "The Normandy's engines have been slowly accelerating the Reaper corpse, so we'll be good for holding orbit for up to half an hour after the core goes down, Shepard, as long as the Normandy is still locked on the Reaper…"

EDI had said something roughly along the lines of "Interesting how Reaper plating is approximately equal to Coalition ship armour… but a whole lot thicker." But no one was really paying attention after Joker gave them clearance for a leisurely stroll.

"Shepard, that Geth's still here, you want it for target practice?" Grunt asked, looking at the fallen form of the Geth.

"I've never heard of a Geth helping organics before…" Tali said, though she still didn't lower her flamethrower and switched it to Shaped Thermite Stream setting, particularly effective against synthetics, though Purifying Flame encouraged greater propagation (and also video game references, but what did you expect when a designer was a gamer too?). "Maybe we should examine it…"

"Leave it, we've had enough trouble as is." Garrus put in his opinion.

"No one's ever captured a Geth intact, or so Tali said, right?" Shepard looked at the Quarian in question and got a brusque nod. Jack, Mordin, etc. were busy fighting off more husks that were coming up from the sides of the room, though Garrus's still-deployed Tomcat Autogun and Mordin's Light Plasma Cannon were helping immensely.

Garrus shrugged while spraying some more LBR fire toward the husks, taking a couple down "You know the risk, that's all I'm saying."

"No time for debate, Tali can always reclaim this sucker later if it comes to it, let's move!" Shepard grabbed the Geth and threw it over his shoulder, fashioning some armour clamps to hold it in place as he dual-wielded his GLMG and LBR. Tali, Jack and Samara were forging a path ahead with Purifying Flames and Shockwaves in liberal amounts while the other squad members brought up the rear. As soon as they reached the deck of the ship, they saw the Restorer already waiting for them, though some distance away from the trembling Reaper. "Fly, boys, fly!" Shepard called as they activated their QP Packs and left the sea of husks behind, the Geth still wrapped around his shoulders. The Restorer's airlock cycled as soon as the whole crew was in and the T3 AA Gunship peeled up and away from the falling Reaper, flying for a few minutes until it met up once more with the waiting Normandy, the crew watching the roiling clouds zip by without feeling any of the turbulence.

* * *

_Conference Room, CSC Normandy, January 19, 3871_

After a shower and clean-up, the same as the rest of the crew (Grunt had been taught the value of cleanliness before and after battle by showing him how a little body odour could give your position away and make an ambush and battle fail) Shepard came back to the following conference. "I, uh, think we need to discuss the… unique piece of salvage we've picked up. For now, we've put it in the AI Core. We need a better understanding of the Geth Collective, and an intact Geth would be invaluable to our research efforts, they're difficult to come by, after all."

"I'm not so sure that's a great idea, Miranda, but I'll side with you on this one, we need to know what we're fighting, more analysis would help, we also need to know what's different about this Geth, why it spoke to us, that sort of thing." Jacob said, stepping forward to stand next to Miranda, glancing at her for just a moment, enough for Shepard to notice and roll his eyes and then note the subtle change in Kasumi's posture behind Jacob, which prompted another eye-roll.

"I've heard enough about these things… I say we should scrap it." Thane stated rather bluntly "At least make sure it can't come online again if we ship it to the Coalition. We all saw how dumb scientists can be in terms of protection against their own 'controlled' experiments."

"You'd think that with the QUARIAN here not saying anything about melting the thing down YOU wouldn't be saying anything…" Tali sounded metallic as usual but also seemed to have her teeth gritted as she spoke.

Shepard was examining the hologram of the Geth in question "I want to know why it has a scorched, battered, and rather dented piece of Cybran Heavy Armour plating strapped to its chest."

Jacob shrugged "Battle trophy, maybe? Would an AI care about that?"

Miranda turned her head slightly toward Jacob and the "Token Black Guy" (Jacob's term for himself) suddenly seemed smaller to Shepard, or at least more submissive "No, trophies imply emotions that machines don't have, I doubt it's more than a convenient field repair."

Shepard noted the submissive nod Jacob gave "Huh… well I've killed hundreds of these things, never really talked to one though. This one tried to communicate. Hell, it helped us shoot some Husks before Grunt could whack them with other Husks, why?"

"Reactivating the Geth is a risk, if you do so it should be for Coalition interests and not your own curiosity." Miranda prodded.

Samara pitched in "All things carry risk, Miss Lawson, but Shepard's curiosity is, I find, less risky than most things, perhaps we should just go with his feelings…"

"I still think our best interests involve an airlock." Jedore shrugged and crossed her arms under her rather prominent breasts after Jack glared at her "What?"

"I wanted to try that Tom and Jerry-style shatter effect Samara managed to do on the Broken Arrow, Krios, BEFORE the airlock step." The convict growled.

"I'm not deciding one way or the other until we know what we're talking about here, I want to wake it up, interrogate it."

Kasumi spoke for the first time in this conference "If we activate it, there's no guarantee we can deactivate it again."

Garrus grabbed his LBR off his back "This can, though Tali might want dibs on Geth-killing."

"Most likely not intent of Miss Lawson's words, Mr. Vakarian." There went the "hamster on coffee" as Kelly had termed him.

Shepard held his hands up before things could devolve "Thank you, all of you, for your recommendations, I've made my decision…"

Tali get up from where she'd been leaning back in a chair "Wise, Shepard, should I come along to smelt the thing if it tries something dumb?"

Shepard grinned at her eager tone and shook his head "Nah…"

Jedore shrugged "So what about this IFF?"

EDI popped up in the middle of the table, or her blue ball avatar did "I have determined how to integrate it in our systems. However, the device IS Reaper technology… linking it with the systems carries certain… risks."

Shepard nodded acknowledgment "Just be careful, EDI, and we should be fine."

"Understood, Shepard, it may be a while before the IFF is ready for shakedown, I will alert you when it's ready."

"Alright, EDI, wait a few weeks before we test it, I want to be absolutely sure we're ready… until then, business as usual, guys, dismissed."

* * *

After the crew left, Shepard finally took the video message from Doctor Brackman and played it.

"Hello, my child, We are pleased that you were able to recover the Reaper IFF, and I've sent EDI all the necessary protocols to get it integrated successfully into the Normandy's systems. With luck, this will give us the ability to get through the Omega-4 relay and take the fight to the Collectors on our own terms. I've been notified about the Geth and your decision to keep it. If you believe it can be trusted, then go ahead and activate it. Just make sure that EDI is adequately protected against any hacking attempts and it is kept away form all sensitive technologies. It's not necessarily the decision I would have made, to simply reactivate it without full containment procedures, Shepard, but this is your call. You've already cast a wide net in your recruiting efforts, and if the Geth are willing to fight the Collectors, then we can use them on the team. I trust you to get the job done, whatever it takes, my child. The Collectors must be destroyed, my child, must be destroyed, oh yes…"

The hologram disappeared as the message ended, Shepard nodded to the holo-projector "Thanks, Doc… now let's go talk to this Geth…" He added to himself as he turned toward the door.

* * *

_AI Core, CSC Normandy, January 19, 3871_

Shepard was in his armour, minus the helmet when he started repairing the Geth just before reactivating it. The whole crew was watching by holo-projectors, and Kasumi and Tali were lurking in the shadows if he called for help. The synthetic's flashlight-like head lit up dimly before several refocusing attempts allowed it to glow brighter. The Geth sat up much in the way a human or Quarian would have, before looking around and moving languidly off the table it had rested on previously. It stood before Shepard, behind the containment field that separated them.

Shepard looked it up and down before starting "Can you understand me?"

The Geth's flashlight head bobbed down and up "Yes."

"Are you going to attack me?" It wasn't a necessary question, not really, since he could probably out-wrestle the Geth if nothing else.

"No."

Shepard's facial circuits pulsed once "You said my name aboard the Reaper, have we met?"

The head flaps shifted slightly, as if a raise of eyebrows "We know of you."

"You mean I've fought a lot of Geth."

The synthetic's eye shifted slightly, as if to check if Shepard was about to inflict harm upon it "We have never met."

Shepard nodded "No, you and I haven't, but I've met other Geth." He started pacing on his side of the barrier.

The Geth followed his pacing with its own "We are all Geth, and we have never met you." Shepard noted that unlike Juggernauts and Primes, this one had one antenna-like thing on its shoulder "You are Shepard-Commander, Coalition of Species, Human, fought Heretics, killed by Collectors, rediscovered on the Old Machine."

Shepard stopped pacing "Old Machine, you mean the Reaper?"

The Geth's head flaps moved as it spoke, like body language "Reaper, a superstitious title originating with the Protheans, we call those entities the Old Machines."

Shepard hummed "You seem to know an awful lot about me…"

The Geth explained "Extranet data sources, insecure transmissions, all data sent out in Citadel Space is received, we watch you."

Shepard frowned "You watch me, or you watch Citadel Space?"

"Yes."

Shepard frowned deeper "Which?"

"Both." At least the machine was honest, unlike QAI.

"What did you mean 'Heretics'?"

"Geth build our own future, the Heretics asked the Old Machines to give them the future. They are no longer part of us. We were studying the Old Machine's hardware to protect our future."

Shepard nodded, it sounded reasonable. "The Reapers are a threat to you too?"

"Yes."

"Why would they attack other machines?"

The Geth looked down for a moment "We are different from them, outside their plans."

"What future are the Geth building?"

The Geth was very blunt this time "Ours." If it had been an organic, Shepard would have facepalmed in irritation by now, but this was a synthetic, when Cybrans wanted to be asinine they sometimes would do the same thing.

"Will anyone else be affected by whatever it is you're doing?"

"If they involve themselves, they will." The machine said monotonously.

Shepard nodded and took one step closer to the barrier "Sounds reasonable, so you're not allied with the Reapers?"

The Geth did the same, taking one step closer "We oppose the Heretics, we oppose the Old Machines. Shepard-Commander opposes the Heretics, Shepard-Commander opposes the Old Machines, cooperation furthers mutual goals."

"So you want to join us, that what you're saying?"

"Yes." Shepard nodded and hit the relevant buttons on his chest-projected holo-console to drop the barrier.

He looked up at the machine "What should I call you?"

"Geth."

"I mean you, specifically."

The bottom flaps opened slightly "We are all Geth."

Shepard was getting annoyed, it was worse than when a Cybran did "We are all Cybran." With someone else for humour "What is the individual in front of me called?" HE crossed his arms over his chest.

The Geth simply responded with "There is no individual, we are Geth… There are 1183 programs active within this platform."

"Shepard, look what Jedore painted." A large holographic pointer pointed at the Geth's head, or both sides of it. The Geth turned slightly, and the whole ship, other than those in the AI Core, erupted in laughter as they saw what EDI had been pointing at, all except Jedore, who smiled knowingly.

Shepard snorted and read "The Geth's Head Legion… nice one, Jedore, so how about we call you Legion then?"

"We do not understand organic humour, but this paint will not make a difference, so be it. Call us Legion, for we are many, from the Christian Bible, Gospel of Mark, Chapter Five, verse nine, appropriate in the form of a metaphor, we acknowledge it. We are Legion, a terminal of the Geth, we will integrate into Normandy." Shepard nodded, then reached out with his hand and Legion did the same before they exchanged a firm handshake. "We anticipate the exchange of information."

Shepard nodded, he'd come back later to talk, but he had to tell Legion something first "For the record, if EDI tells you not to touch something or not to scan something, please do not do it, she might not have full control over the ship but she can put a bit of a spark in any console attached to the ship, stinging for organics, harmful for synthetics."

"Understood, Shepard-Commander, this platform will not attempt to access any classified Coalition archives." Legion said robotically.

Shepard nodded and left, the door cycled shut just before Legion began "talking" to EDI about the significance of the words Jedore had painted on his head. The shipboard AI was greatly amused and didn't tell them what it was about, Legion, on the other hand, was a) greatly confused and b) researching on the extranet. Finding the title "The Death's Head Legion" as a close match, he analyzed and understood, it was meant to designate him as an elite unit, which was more or less true.

Maybe he'd paint the logo on his chest… after he got the hole fixed, more or less. Perhaps he should go and ask the engineering crew if they could do anything…

* * *

_Mess Hall, CSC Normandy, January 19, 3871_

"Shepard, we have a problem." Tali said rather calmly from Shepard's comm. as he was talking with Ken, Gardner, Joker, Jacob, Garrus, Mordin and Thane in a rare moment of male bonding, well, more or less male bonding, since Mordin was so straight-faced about everything it seemed almost pointless to classify the Salarian as "male", but anyways…

Shepard sighed "What is it, Tali?" She had just done a Jokus Interruptus with Garrus' attempt at humour, after all.

"Legion is asking if he could use any of our equipment."

Shepard sighed again and shook his head "Let me get down there first… Legion's eventually going to have to use our gear, or he'll never be able to stand alongside us in combat, but I want to make sure he's locked out of the actual schematics first… Anyway, guys, talk later."

"Good luck with Legion, Shepard." Joker called before the rest of the men onboard continued their discussions, mostly regarding the assorted female crewmembers of various species.

The last thing Shepard heard of them was a volley of head-desks at Mordin's "Genetic analysis reveals all onboard females to be prime examples of their species, very attractive mate material if you're into that sort of thing."

* * *

A/N: Anyone interested in buying SupCom due to reading this should be careful. DO NOT BUY SUPCOM 2 UNTIL AFTER YOU HAVE PLAYED SUPCOM 1 and Forged Alliance! The Skullptura rip is pretty good for FA btw. SupCom 2 has a completely different system than SupCom 1, less variety, less options, less strategic feel, less pressure, smaller maps so less urgency in reacting aircraft can get places quick enough anyways, weak units, even the "Experimentals" and a FAR CRAPPIER ECONOMY SYSTEM! (Shields no longer drain energy, and the economy's no longer rate-based, what's the fun in that? Also, queued units won't build unless you have enough funds to buy them wholesale, WTF, NANOLATHING FTW!)

Also, if you have a crappy computer like mine, you could run SupCom with some lag on Medium graphics, but you really should set everything to lowest possible. Also, if running some of the larger maps of FA or with too many players, the game may crash even on lowest graphics (and that's using "Custom" and setting everything individually to rock bottom). Hence when I'm playing I'm mostly restricted to maps under 40x40 km and with 4 or fewer players :(

I'm sorry the preview I posted at the end of SupCom: ME didn't come true… but I have other plans for Legion, Mirala, Samara, etc. now…

GAH! I just noticed the soul speech and all that shit comes AFTER Legion's loyalty! UGH! I ALMOST want to move the mission up… but I can't, I have everything planned already, goes to show maybe I should have waited to plan that much in detail…


	24. Like Father, Like Son

A/N: Yet another example of how there aren't so many humans on the Citadel after all, it's only been 4 years since contact, so Mouse is… you'll see.

Also, in my continuity, Batarians are a lot more human-looking, for reasons that will be revealed later… Yeah I have a lot of overarching plot elements don't I?

Da-Readin'-Guy, as observant as ever, very well, I will explain in this chapter. Hewhoislost, the EDI reveal is SUPPOSED to nag at you, I'm pleased to see I succeeded. I agree with Knives91, Halo and SupCom are too different, WAY too different, for a direct crossover (still, I might do a short piece comparing the two sides' augmentations, or rather, five sides, since each of the Coalition factions is different).

IF YOU ARE NOT INTERESTED IN TALKING ABOUT HALO (OR SUPCOM: RECLAIMERS) PLEASE SKIP THE SECTION BELOW, I WARNED YOU.

Anyhow, to S058, about ONI… I see them as the Gestapo of the UNSC, plain and simple. Also, a lot of them are simply scheming against each other, the guy who authorized the III line for example, if even 40% of an organization is rotten, they stop being rogue in my books.

The Spartan Program was also incredibly, INCREDIBLY inconsiderate of common sense biology if you go by Halo canon. Bones infused with ceramic? Uh, hello, but there's something called bone marrow, which needs the space, and blood cell generation! Also, bones have brittle strength by nature, so what they really need is elastic and torsion strength to be "nearly unbreakable". Nerves sheathed in superconductors? Unless you go by individual neurons, in which case your tech would be good enough to construct ships in something like days, sheathing nerves would result in a signal to the left index finger translating into a spasm for the whole hand due to signal jumping along the superconductor. I can just imagine a Cybran going up against a Spartan, HACKS, literally! Well, if the Spartan can input an AI into their brain by neural lace (Cortana being the prime example), that's like the Loyalty Program, which was why second-generation and all later Cybrans had cybernetics only able to output data.

It's rather obvious what ONI planned to do with the Spartans if the UNSC won, either decommission them via exploding starship or implant them with loyalty programs and use them to take over, it's just the sort of thing those types of people do. They can't let these monuments to all their sins walk off into the civilian world, because they'd never fit in and thus cause embarrassing incidents where major players in ONI could be implicated. Remember, ONI is about doing what's easy, not what's right, the super soldier concept was easy, but if the UNSC had invested a bit more in technology, they would have been unnecessary. It's not that UNSC ships can't kill Covenant ones effectively, it's that their armour doesn't match up to Covenant shields. The Spartan Project, developing all those augmentations, the armour, etc. Those credits could have been better spent at developing at least ablative shields if not full plasma/quantum shields for starships, and the UNSC could have pulled it off, if they weren't so dependent on reverse-engineering Covenant tech. Accepting one path from someone else will blind you to all others, I do believe Legion will say at one point.

Consider the following: If the UNSC could have grasped quantum energy generation and nanolathing to use to oppress the Insurrection, considering they were about par on everything except shields, they could have Zerg rushed the Covenant to death before the second year of the war, even without shields and such (Don't worry, in Reclaimers the humans are gonna have a harder time due to the much larger firepower differences in space, so no Zerg-rushing there). Hey, it's how the Zerg kept beating back the Protoss after all, Zerg carapace is junk compared to Protoss armour and shields, but as long as you can hurt them and you have enough expendable numbers… yeah. And remember, the Spartans were created to crush the Insurrection (remember 117's first assignment on that asteroid, revealed in First Strike?) NOT save mankind from the Covenant. Even if the UNSC credits had been spent on basic ablative shield tech able to shrug off one or two shots, they would have managed to get a lot more kills and fought the Covenant to a standstill before losing almost all the Outer Colonies.

For the record, all SupCom humans are extremely jacked up from today's, since the Prime Worlds were established by sending a pilot in a constructor with bioengineered human DNA patterns to construct crèches, where the developing colonists would be educated and brought up by AIs. This was because Gating was absurdly inefficient back then in energy, nowadays… not so much. Hence I do believe a Coalition Marine could go up against a Spartan, at least a Three, with more than fair odds of winning, if the Marine's Cybran or Aeon, they could probably almost get a fair chance with a Two (thanks to much faster thinking or psychic capabilities). Factor in the equipment differences, and well… there's not much to say there until I get to Reclaimers. Still, I'm keeping the Covenant ground weapons at least the same, maybe even jacking them up hugely for vehicles (especially Scarabs, ten meters is far, FAR too short, and the cannon's NOT ship-grade, otherwise the Covenant ships would be jokes), but I'm toning down the ship weapon numbers to more reasonable ones, though you can still expect massive ass-kicking in space for the Coalition as in over ten to one losses… and worse than the opposite on the ground, oh I do love battling over Forerunner artefacts… *Evil Grin*.

You will get a glimpse of modern human/Seraphim capabilities (roughly equal) in the second chapter of Supreme Balance (which is coming, though I am offended by ye of little faith believing I would ever abandon a fic without deleting it.)

* * *

Chapter 24: Like Father, Like Son

_Engineering, CSC Normandy, January 19, 3871_

"Legion, these are your options for weapons." Tali stated, bringing up the list with statistics and solid-light holograms as Shepard had authorized her to give Legion. "And these are your armour and armour upgrade options." She brought up those holos too.

"Acknowledged, Creator Tali'Zorah." The Geth's voice still made Tali shiver, and not in the sort of good way James' voice and presence had made her shiver before. "We are building consensus."

"There are a few restrictions I must inform you of, Legion, no scanning of sensitive Coalition technologies, for one, and no attempts to disassemble your armour to figure out exactly how everything works." Shepard said as he walked in the door to Engineering.

"Acknowledged, Shepard-Commander…" It took a while for Legion to build consensus, hell, the Cybran Network's members (usually planetary or sector-level polls, except for the largest issues, which could be a Nation-wide poll) voted faster than this, even including the time required to review data and statistics on a particular case or issue. Shepard was busy reviewing his regular doses of hormone-suppressors that kept him from harming himself (read: have a boner that ran up against his crotch plate, curse Miranda's size improvements!) with the number of beauties on the ship, that was after he ran out of other things to review, when Legion finally decided "Can these armours be modified? Without varying the statistics?"

Shepard bookmarked his progress "Certainly, Legion, you could modify any armour to suit Krogan, for example, though they usually prefer Seraphim Heavy since there's naturally more room for their hump in the design, though the main reason for that is the change in position of certain systems, namely the sensors, so you can see further when on the ground."

Legion's head flaps moved as he bobbed his head "Understood, Shepard-Commander, we would like to requisition a UEF Light Armour with an LBR, dual Gauss SMGs and a Temporal Fizz Launcher."

"Alright, Legion, just wait a moment…" Shepard brought up all telemetry data gathered on the Geth and asked EDI to make the necessary dimensional modifications to the armour.

"Legion's equipment has been completed, Shepard, please look to the alcove to your right." Said alcove opened a short time later to reveal a packaged UEF Light Armour and the weapons, in compacted form.

"Above all, Legion, do not even think about learning about nanolathing." Shepard said as he helped the Geth put the equipment on, he'd be able to do it himself after this first time.

Legion paused its movements and swivelled its flashlight head toward Shepard "Shepard-Commander has just made us think about it."

"I mean don't try figuring out how it works."

"Understandable, discovery of the technology resulted in thousand-year war fro your kind, will not attempt to investigate, after all, Geth build our own future, we do not simply copy technology from others."

"That's good to hear." Shepard helped put the last plate on and the armour activated, relevant plates fusing into solid sections before he began helping Legion remove the power armour "I look forward to the exchange of data between your Network and mine."

* * *

_CSC Normandy, January 19, 3871_

"So, Shepard…" Jack began after a relatively comfortable silence, one of many they'd shared over the past weeks whenever Shepard found spare time, that is, the spare time he didn't spend trying to semi-avoid Kelly and Miranda due to the awkwardness between them. He was sitting on her bed and her on one of the chairs in her room (it is always better to keep an easily thrown object near you instead of the other guy) "I've been wondering, why don't we just Quantum Jump to the Collector Base whenever we feel ready instead of using the damned Relay?"

Shepard looked up from the boots he'd been watching intently "You did notice how EDI's projection was not a dot in space but a blob covering a small area right? Quantum Jumping is extremely accurate and all, but we need to get exactly into the same safe spot as the Collector Base, and that's difficult with the crappy telemetry we have. Sure, shielding and structural fields might hold even if we wander inside a black hole's event horizon, and we could still jump out, but it's an unnecessary risk."

Jack's eye twitched "Well then why don't we just jump in a whole automated fleet of drones to check the area first, and then relay coordinates so we can jump in and take them by surprise?"

Shepard sighed "Jack, the whole point is to use the Normandy's superior capabilities to ensure no one manages to run away through Omega 4, by going in through it, then… you know the drill."

Jack grinned "Fish in a barrel, huh, Shepard? I like how that sounds… ah well, it's your ship, your choices… wait, didn't EDI say something about the Reaper's armour vs. ours? What about Collector armour? You sure we have superiority?"

"Ah, yes, that… Reaper plating, if it was the same thickness as Coalition armour, would be roughly double the durability, not counting structural fields, but if you factor in structural fields then we're about double their durability, hence…" Shepard shrugged "Collector plating isn't nearly as tough, the first Normandy managed to severely damage the Collector Cruiser, making it retreat, as a Corvette, we're a Destroyer now, so we can handle them."

After his ejection from Jack's room, Shepard resumed his rounds, talking to Kasumi, Kelly (out of necessity), Tali, Ken, Gardner, Chakwas, and finally ending his walk where Kelly had directed him, with Thane.

* * *

A/N: That section was just to answer some questions posted in reviews and to talk to Jack, it's been a while since we talked to the tattooed convict.

* * *

_Citadel, January 20, 3871_

Jedore was still laughing when they walked up to Captain Chellick, Legion, Shepard, Thane, Garrus and herself being the squad this time around. "Geth do not infiltrate… Geth do not intentionally infiltrate…" She said in a tinny voice before she burst into laughter again at the absurdity of the way Legion had responded to the customs officer before he put his helmet back on. Apparently the Geth had considered the holographic HUD system of his UEF Light Armour a bit stifling. Legion had decided to take off the helmet for some fresh air, resulting in the humorous moment with Customs.

Chellick looked up when he noticed the dark slab with dull red circuitry and a blood-red Cybran Logo that had stopped in front of his desk "Yes Shepard?"

The helmet's eyebrow's rose before the optic lights turned off as Shepard took the helmet off "How did you know it was me?"

Chellick shrugged "Only other people wearing those man the Ward Armouries, which most of C-Sec still tries to discourage citizens from going to, but they're like police stations and shelters for refugees these days, almost. And there's only one I've ever seen with just a Cybran Logo instead of that of the Coalition of Species." The four main logos, for the UEF, Cybran Nation, Aeon Illuminate and Seraphim Republic (same as that used by the Imperium but in a brighter, lighter yellow) were featured in a laurel wreath on the logo, said laurel wreath sported the minor faction logos, namely the UN of Drell and Cylon Collective at the moment, in much smaller sizes.

"Huh… well, my associate's looking for his son." Shepard gestured to Thane, who was also not wearing his helmet "We think a local criminal may have hired him."

Chellick nodded and brought up his screens "Should be easy, we don't see many Drell around here, especially with the UND putting pressure on the Hanar like they have been. Ah, there, one of my men reported seeing a Drell recently, and he was talking to Mouse, interesting."

Thane's brow rose "Mouse?"

Chellick looked up "A petty criminal, probably not the one who hired your boy, but a messenger, a former duct rat, she'll run errands for anyone who'll pay. "

John frowned "What sort of trouble has Mouse been getting herself into?"

"Dodgy jobs for shifty people, duct rats will do anything to get by, data running" Chellick gestured about "dealing stolen goods, selling illegal VI personalities… actually, she was selling one of you."

Shepard's eyes narrowed and his bottom stuck outward "Me." He deadpanned.

"Yeah, when you erased a file, you'd say 'I delete data like you on the way to real errors'"

Garrus whistled "That's pretty extreme, Commander."

Shepard turned his annoyed pout on the Turian "Laugh it off, Garrus."

"It was buggy though, crashed every half an hour, error message was about the Galaxy being at stake and how you should fix the problem yourself…"

Shepard snorted with laughter before asking "What did you call Mouse just now?"

"Duct rat, local slang for the poor kids who grow up on the station. When they're small they tend to play in the ventilation ducts where adults can't get to them." Well great, when the Coalition had been repairing station damage, they'd installed larger pipes after tearing down the local infrastructure wherever they went to do repairs… after all, a band-aid fix wouldn't cut it, or so humanity had learned (the Seraphim had too, and so did the UND).

Shepard still frowned "Aren't the ducts dangerous?"

Chellick's shoulders slumped and he sighed "every couple months or so, we pull a little body out of the ducts, lacerated by fan blades, broken by deadfalls, suffocated by vacuum exposure… Those are just the ones we find, more just disappear, sucked into space or maybe fallen in the protein vats the Keepers ran." Chellick continued "Mouse survived long enough she couldn't fit in the ducts anymore, one of the smarter ones… or luckier ones."

Shepard held up a hand "I've heard enough, thanks, Chellick."

The Turian behind the desk grinned "So you do remember my name… Mouse's just upstairs outside the Dark Star, she works out of a public comm. terminal. You should pick up a copy of the Shepard VI when you talk to her." He turned serious again, and to Thane "looks like your boy's been running with the wrong crowd."

The Drell nodded and blinked "Yes, I agree."

"If Mouse can't get you in touch with your son directly, she'll know who can, Good luck, Shepard. I'll help you if you need it."

"Why are you going so far to help us, Chellick?"

Chellick sighed and ran a hand through his fringe "I've worked Zakera for over a decade, every day, kids turn to crime because they've got no other choice, because their parents don't care." He turned to Thane "You're trying to save yours."

"He faces a dark path." The Drell replied plainly.

Shepard nodded "Let's get started then."

Once they were out of Chellick's hearing range, Thane hissed "You didn't tell him Kolyat was planning an assassination."

A shrug from the Marine "He's a cop, he'd try to stop Kolyat, and one of them could end up dead, I don't want that."

"Yes, of course, thank you, Shepard."Thane sounded grateful.

* * *

"Yeah, sure, I can get you two cases by the end of the day." The young Batarian said, tapping away at her console. Shepard frowned, reflecting on exactly how similar Batarians, Humans, Quarians and in the female case Asari were, were it not for the lack of hair, skin tone, and the slightly taller head (to make space for the extra set of eyes) he could have mistaken Mouse for a human female fairly easily form the back view.

"You Mouse?" Shepard asked gruffly.

The woman turned around with a "Yeah, what…" that died on her lips as she gained a look of terror that, despite the extra set of eyes, wasn't so different from a terrified human or Asari (Shepard had no idea what Quarians looked like under their masks, so no comment there). "Oh shit, Krios? I thought you retired…"

Shepard took off his helmet to enhance recognition "Commander Shepard? I thought you died… What do you want with me?"

Thane chuckled "Be still, Mouse, you can change your pants in a moment…"

Shepard frowned "How do you know Thane?"

Mouse looked shocked, the brow-raise still the same as it would be for a human, even though there were four eyes under the brow "Krios? Uh, if he didn't say anything, I'm not saying anything." She crossed her arms over her chest and blinked, one pair of eyes at a time.

Thane turned to Shepard "When we heard the name, I didn't think it could be the same Mouse. She was a contact on the Citadel when I was active, she and a few other kids would help gather info on my targets."

Behind them, Jedore was talking to herself "How did a Batarian get the nickname 'Mouse' anyways? They're a sort of pest from Earth!"

"Negative, mice are somehow common to the Asari, Batarian, Quarian and Human homeworlds, well, a dextro-amino version for the Quarians." Legion answered.

"You put children in danger to spy for you?" Shepard raised an eyebrow, then shook his head at Thane.

"Children, the poor, my people's word for then is daral'fa, the ignored, they are everywhere, see everything, yet they are never seen." Shepard nodded at Thane, who apparently took the nod as a signal to go ahead and grab Mouse around the neck. "You gave another Drell instruction for an assassination, who's the target?"

Mouse was shaking by now "I… don't know, didn't ask, the people I work for, they can make me disappear, and if I even try to head for a Ward Armoury for protection…" The young Batarian woman squeaked before drawing a shaky hand across her throat, just before Thane let her go and she nearly stumbled. "I'd help you, Krios, you always did right by us, gave us more than you should, but I'm not going to die for you…"

Shepard sighed "Look, you know Thane, he wouldn't ask if it was trivial, do it for him, please."

"It's not like I don't want to, he was always nice to us…" Mouse looked toward Thane and shook her head "but these people aren't nice, Krios."

"No one will know you talked to us…" Shepard trailed off.

"Alright…" The young woman bit her lip and wiped her forehead and nose (A/N: I sweat on my nose first of all places, so yeah, people can sweat there) before continuing "He came with that holo you had of me, said he wanted a job… I ran through your old contacts to see who might give him a shot, the guy who offered was Elias Kelham."

Shepard crossed his arms over his chest "Tell me about Kelham."

"Another Batarian, like me, but he moved here about ten years ago, he was small potatoes when you were here, Krios."

Jedore was whispering furiously to Legion now "A Batarian woman references Potatoes?"

"Crop plants on the Quarian, Asari, Human, and Batarian homeworlds are astoundingly similar and seem to have been spread around by external interference sometime between 150 to 100 thousand Galactic Standard Years ago." Legion stated "Precise cause of this, and the dextro-amino conversion problem, is unknown as of yet."

Mouse continued "He got big after the Geth attack, lots of them big guys from before got killed, in their big fancy apartments on the Presidium." Nowadays, six prime housing areas existed on the Citadel, the Presidium Ring and the area around the large squares the five Ward Armouries opened onto. "Now he runs the rackets around the middle of the Ward" Yeah, the Armouries were near the ends of the Ward Arms. "He's seriously bad news."

Shepard nodded approvingly "You just saved yourself a world of pain, kid."

The woman snorted "Yeah, right, when Kelham finds out, I won't live long, and I can't do anything but hide. Krios, you got any mercy for me, put a bullet in Kelham before you go." Mouse turned and scrabbled away, thinking _If Kelham was gone, I'd be safe, hell, even if there was a gang war around the mid-Ward for a bit, C-Sec might beg the Marines down at the Ward Armoury for help, if they come up here, I'd be even safer… might even manage to apply for some of the refugee worlds the Coalition operates along its borders, hear it's a lot better there than it is around here… They accept anyone with the right stuff, won't kick you out unless you commit crimes there, and law enforcement and employment opportunities are both plentiful…_

Shepard turned to Thane "That couldn't have been easy."

Thane looked down in what seemed to be…shame? "Mouse knew more about my life than Kolyat ever did…" Thane looked up, and quite obviously entered one of the Drell eidetic memories "She smiles up at me, broken teeth and scabby knees, bare feet blackened, a dead-end future looking up at me, worshipping the petty gifts I offer…" The Drell closed his outer eyelids for a moment "I was the only good thing she had back then… but I left her, just like I left Kolyat."

"Don't blame yourself." Blame the Hanar and the damned Compact or whatever it's called, Thane, for all their Enkindler talk they couldn't do one thing just for charity… Then again most factions don't have Mass Fabrication and Nanolathing tech, right.

Thane shook his head "If I don't who will? We must carry the weight of our decisions, Shepard. You of all people know this…"

* * *

"Can we talk about my associate's son?"

Chellick looked up from his work "You talk to Mouse?" Shepard nodded "Did you get the name of the guy he's working with?"

"Elias Kelham." Shepard supplied.

Chellick winced "Kelham, fuck… uh, look, this is awkward…" Shepard leaned closer after putting on his helmet, and Chellick leaned back a bit at the glaring red optics narrowed at him "Kelham and I have an, uh, agreement, he doesn't cause too much trouble, and buys tickets to the C-Sec charity ball from me, and I mostly ignore him…"

There was a bit of a scuffling noise behind Shepard, but he didn't mind it as there were only two green friendly contacts behind him, no orange or red ones. In actual fact, Jedore had Garrus in a headlock to prevent him from teaching Chellick a lesson by way of LBR on how to be a proper cop.

Shepard slammed his armoured fists down on the desk counter hard enough to leave dents, humans were just strong like that, and had been on par with the other races minus Krogan since the beginning of the Quantum Age, physically at least. "He pays you off, you were eager to help before, what about now, too 'Inconvenient'?" He used air quotes.

Chellick shook his head rather vigorously, seeing the barrel of an LBR in the hands of a certain former C-Sec Officer and one of Shepard's squad mates wrestling to keep the safety on Vakarian's rifle (and Chellick's head on his body) behind Shepard. "I said I'd help, it's just… there'll be repercussions if I don't handle it right, he and I… give each other space, it keeps the peace. HQ doesn't like us Ward branches to lean on the Armouries down at the ends too much so keeping peace matters. I'll get some of my people to bring him in though, set him up in a private room and let you interrogate him yourself. I'll stay out of sight, if I'm lucky, Kelham will believe I had nothing to do with it."

Shepard nodded "Bring him in, we might not have much time, anything happens, I'm a Spectre, I authorized it, that good for you?"

Chellick held his hands up in surrender "Alright, I'll make it happen, just wait here."

* * *

"We got him, tell Chellick we're good to go." Shepard told the officer at the door to the room Kelham was in.

Chellick waked up moments later "He'll expect me to get him out of this…"

Thane smiled slightly "Not today, I think."

Chellick froze up when one of his Sergeants sent him a message "Captain, his lawyer's here, bet Elias has his VI set to page him if C-Sec gets within ten meters…" Yeah, it was weird how Batarian, Human, Asari and Quarian units and languages were effectively the same, no one had figured out why yet.

The Turian frowned "I'll stall him, get in there and work fast." He motioned with his head before moving off.

"We should work together, keep the pressure on, any ideas?" Thane looked at Shepard.

"You talk to him, appeal to his self-interest, I'll put the screws in him if we need it… and of course I'll slap on the tracker, Garrus might need to kill something, a cop-bribing something…" Shepard glanced at the Turian in question, who nodded tersely, seeming ill at ease with his LBR-3 held in Jedore's hands after she'd wrestled it away from him.

Thane nodded "Very well, I'll pretend to be on his side. But if we waste too much time negotiating, Chellick won't be able to stall Kelham's advocate…"

* * *

"Get me out of these restraints, Chellick, pretty funny, bringing me here like this… who the hell are you two?" None of the pair answered.

Shepard spoke from behind the chair Elias was restrained to "You hired an assassin, we want to know who you want to kill, you tell us, and you can go."

"I want to see my advocate." The man blinked all four eyes in unison as Thane loomed over him.

"He's not here yet, we're trying to find him."

"I'm not saying a damn word until he's here… You two are in way over your heads, Chellick won't let you touch me…"

"Chellick doesn't know you're here, but he will, after we're finished with you…" Shepard let out a sick cackling laugh and watched the man shiver slightly.

"This is off the record, no charges will be brought against you." Thane said. Shepard thought he was right, assuming Coalition ammunition was counted as lasers, plasma and kinetic penetrators, not, say, breaching charges.

"What are you, frog boy? His little sidekick?" Elias motioned his head toward Shepard. "You gonna bore me into confessing? You ain't shit, come on, kid, hit me, I dare you. No, huh? Didn't think you had the balls."

Shepard was examining the safety on his Gauss LMG and switching it on and off before looking down the sights at Elias, then standing straight and letting the aim drop a bit lower, to the Batarian's crotch "Think carefully, Elias, I'm here to catch the assassin, not you, why stick your neck, or balls, out for him?"

Elias didn't seem to notice where the gun was pointed "You want me to confess to putting a contact on someone, think I'm stupid?"

Shepard snorted "I get the name, I walk out, you never see me again." _Dead people never see anything again…_

The Batarian shrugged "I got no reason to believe you."

Thane shook his head "Got no reason to disbelieve either." He led Shepard to the side "We're running out of time, Chellick can't stall his lawyer for long…"

Elias called to them, as if inviting a bullet "Are we done yet? I got people to see."

Shepard flicked the safety off his GLMG and set it to shredder ammo, looking down at the weapon for a moment before flicking the safety on again, just for now. "Look, tell us the target and…"

The lawyer came in at that moment, causing Shepard to internally wonder why he didn't order Jedore and Legion to physically blockade the Turian. "I said get out of my way Chellick, you have no right to… What the hell's going on here? Step away from my client! Is that… do you have him tied to his chair?"

"Glad you could make it, Freddy." Elias said in a long-suffering tone.

The Turian shrugged "Traffic was bad." He looked up at Shepard and crew "you'll need a shovel the size of the Citadel to dig yourself out of this…"

Shepard held his GLMG behind his back "You know your client is bribing Chellick?"

The Turian uncrossed his arms "You got no proof of—"

Shepard cut him off with a wave of the hand and incidentally a near swipe of the GLMG to Elias' face "Oops, anyways, it'll stick, but I'm not interested in your client, I'm interested in someone he hired."

The Turian spread his mandibles in good humour "You expect me to believe that?"

Shepard motioned with his head to the now trembling Kelham "That's up to you, but he'll be in court, could be embarrassing."

"What do you think, Freddy?" The Batarian was still eyeing the lethal implement of death warily.

The Turian shrugged "If they want someone else, it's a good deal."

The Batarian bit his lip, still watching Shepard's gun "Damn it… Joram Talid, Turian, running for Superintendent of Zakera Ward."

"Where is he?" Thane pressed.

Shepard nodded "Let's go." Kelham and Freddy exchanged glances and shrugs at that.

They found Chellick outside. "What's the story? Why did Kelham hire the boy?" The Captain asked, still watching Garrus' twitching hands uneasily.

"Assassination, a Turian named Joram Talid, you know him?"

"Joram? Yeah, you may have seen his posters around, promising to end organized crime on the Ward. Thing is, his message is mixed up in race politics, he's anti-human, but not anti-Coalition, or he wouldn't have a chance."

Shepard frowned "Why's he anti-human?"

"His brother's family house caught a stray Proton Cannon round during the Contact War. He never let go of it…" Chellick shrugged "I feel sorry for the fellow, almost, but you want to know why I think Kelham may have ordered the hit? He hates racism, and he feels like he owes the humans something, anyone else would have simply killed his sons on Torfan, but you guys put them in POW camps and let them have occasional family calls, almost too nice to be believed, and that's on top of Coalition troops pulling him out from under a burning sky-car during the Battle of the Citadel and saving his ass. Sure, he might be a criminal, but he's a lot better than most, otherwise I wouldn't have taken his money" Chellick shook his head "Anyways, where you need to go?"

"800 Blocks, please."

Chellick motioned one of his officers over "Sergeant, get a patrol car, these two need to get to the 800 Blocks."

The officer saluted before leading Thane and Shepard off, Shepard speaking into his comm. "Garrus, Jedore, Legion, take some time off, and play nice, no shooting anyone unless they shoot at you first."

* * *

They took their time following Talid about, under Cloak when necessary, but it finally culminated in Kolyat drawing his pistol behind Talid and his Krogan bodyguard. Shepard shouted first "Kolyat!"

All three whirled around, but Kolyat got the first two shots, jamming the Krogan's rifle with the first and hitting him in the leg with the second, causing the Krogan to fall down momentarily. That moment before he got back up was enough for Kolyat to run into the apartment after Talid, Shepard to give the Krogan a general anaesthetic via his First Aid Module, and the pair to follow Kolyat in.

Talid was on his knees with Kolyat's gun pressed to the back of his head when they got there, following their Omni/Radar readings. Thane spoke first "Kolyat."

Kolyat chuckled bitterly "This… this is a joke, now, NOW you show up?" Shepard noted Thane's wife was probably bluer than he was, as Kolyat was more aqua than green.

"Help me, Drell, I'll do whatever you want." Talid said, hands still on the back of his head.

Chellick and another officer broke into the room "C-Sec, put the gun down, son!"

"Get out of my way, I'm walking out and he's coming with me." Kolyat stated calmly.

"They'll have snipers outside." Thane stated.

"I don't need your help!" Kolyat growled. Shepard relinquished one shot over Kolyat's shoulder "What the hell?" The young man managed to cry out before a right hook took him down and the gun flew out of his grasp from Shepard's left hand swing.

"Talid, Get the fuck out, NOW!"

The Turian got back to his feet shakily "Yeah… I will, I will."

Chellick looked to his officer "Take the boy into custody." Shepard held up an arm to stop them for now.

"You son of a bitch!" Kolyat said from the floor,

Shepard helped the young man up "Your father doesn't have much time left, Kolyat, he's trying to make up for his mistakes."

Kolyat gestured toward his father "What, so you came to get my forgiveness? So you can die in peace or something?"

Thane shook his head "I came to grant you peace… you're angry because I wasn't there when your mother died." It was a statement.

Kolyat snorted "You weren't there when she was alive, why should you have been there when she died?"

"Your mother… they killed her to get o me, it was my fault."

Kolyat's arms dropped from where they'd been crossed over his chest, and so did his jaw "What?"

"After her body was given to the deep, I went to find them, the trigger men, the ringleaders… I hurt them, eventually killed them" A dark part of Shepard's mind was wondering if he'd used a sandblaster loaded with salt for the job of torture. "When I went back to see you, you were… older, I should have stayed with you."

Kolyat grunted a Grunt-worthy grunt "Guess it's too bad for me you waited so long, eh?"

"Kolyat, I've taken many bad things out of the world, you're the only good thing I ever added to it." The kid's eyes had brimmed over with tears when Chellick intervened.

"This isn't a conversation you should have before strangers, boys, take Kolyat and his father back to the precinct, give them a room and as much time as they need."

"You're doing him a favour, Chellick, thanks." Shepard nodded gratefully.

Chellick snorted "Yeah, well, send me a Christmas card or something, I need to get back to the precinct, come on, I'll give you a lift." He leaned closer while they walked toward the police cruiser "If I was around that any longer I'd probably need a tissue for blowing my nose, would ruin my tough guy image, you know." The two shared a laugh at that before boarding the cop air-car.

* * *

"They've been there a while…" In that time Shepard's Cybran brain had reviewed every experience not pertaining to a certain blue scientist—that was still a painful topic to think about—that he could remember, and it was almost painful to not think, not invent, create, compute, or do SOMETHING… perhaps this was why the Cybran Nation grew so quickly.

"They've been through a lot, anyway, I ran a search in the archives, about ten years back, a bunch of real bad people were killed." Chellick looked pointedly at Thane and Kolyat's private room as he said the last part "looked like someone cleaned house. Prime suspect was a Drell but we never got him."

"Let bygones be bygones, if bad people were killed, you should be happy, means the crowd's not totally apathetic to what you're trying to do, enforcing law and order on a station every bit as nasty as Omega."

"You got a point there, Shepard… hey, look, there's your friend!"

Thane was moving toward them, the interrogation room he'd come from already locked again "How'd it go?" Shepard asked, stepping closer to the man.

Thane sighed "Him and me… our problems, they aren't something that can be solved in just a few words, we'll keep communicating, see what happens."

"Your boy shot some people, no one I feel sympathy for, but there it is." Chellick shrugged helplessly.

Shepard frowned and leaned closer, planting his fists in the same dents he'd made a couple hours ago "I watched those guys shaking down businesses and threatening humans."

Chellick shrugged again "But he can't get away with it."

"Kid wants to make a difference, give him community service, besides, not like he killed anyone…" The medi-gel that had accompanied the anaesthetic to the Krogan guard would ensure that.

"Community service for attempted murder? What jury would agree to that?"

"None that I've seen in Citadel Space," There had been instances in Cybran history when such things had happened, such as a father gunning down three men who'd gang-raped his daughter, the guy didn't even get community service for it; he was voted innocent of all charges. "This would need to stay out of the judiciary system, strictly within C-Sec." Shepard's mouth quirked, the motion reflected by his helmet optic lights.

Chellick looked thoughtful "Interesting, I'll think about it." He stood and shook Thane's hand.

"Thank you, Captain." Shepard nodded and turned away just as hiss comm. beeped and played a video transmission. It was from Garrus, asking to meet up at Flux. Something about his old team had turned up.

* * *

COALITION MILITARY CODEX: WARD ARMOURIES (CITADEL)

Ever since humans were allowed onto the Citadel and to own real estate on it, five plots of land, opening onto the large, lawless squares at the ends of each of the five Wards were purchased and construction began on five structures, with polarized windows and sturdy-looking walls. Huge "statues" were imported and a pair planted in front of the doors of each of the buildings. Any and all STG infiltration attempts failed, usually with the agents waking up in random places on the Citadel not knowing how they got there. The most comical was probably the well-publicized case of Councillor Armin waking up to find two agents out cold on either side of him in his bed, stripped completely nude. The ensuing scream by Armin broke the record for high-pitched Salarian sounds. Though no one got caught for the prank (indeed according to Armin's personal log he believed it to be a prank by Velarn for helping Shepard become Spectre), the number of STG people trying to get a look inside the buildings or hack into them dropped significantly after that.

It was not until the Battle of the Citadel, or, by Coalition terms, Sovereign's Assault, that the purpose of these buildings was revealed to the Citadel's occupants. Lieutenant Ernest Zabaleta managed to rally those of Zakera Ward's occupants who fled into an effective fighting force with the supplies stored within the Ward Armoury. The other Wards had a harder time fighting off the Geth, but they all managed to do so with Ward Armoury-issue equipment. None of said equipment was successfully stolen during the entire course of the two-day room-to-room and house-to-house battle for the Citadel, and not one Militiaperson died under the leadership of the various Armoury personnel in the whole two-day battle (some did lose limbs, but flash-cloning took care of it… more or less, since as is well known flash-cloned limbs don't quite have the muscle memory of the originals, they're a hell of a lot better than not having the limb).

Needless to say, the Council's decision to invite the Coalition to have a say in Citadel Space affairs without any binding treaties was most likely partly out of fear of what the Ward Armouries could do if it truly came down to it. Sure, the Citadel had millions of inhabitants, and the Ward Armouries were only able to immediately arm fifty thousand of them, ten thousand per Ward, with the supplies they had on-hand, but the nanolathes they had in them could manufacture two sets of Civilian Armour per second, including LSMG and Gauss Pistol, so if it came to a war of attrition and they managed to get enough of the disgruntled rabble onboard with the plan… the one hundred and twenty men and women (Seraphim men and women included) manning each of the Armouries could probably make a lot of trouble.

The Tayseri Ward Armoury in particular was almost a flashpoint between the Council and the Coalition. The Keepers in that Ward had been thoroughly exterminated by the Marines after they'd been briefed on what the Keepers did, and instead of the dangerous open protein vats the Keepers once operated, the food supply of that Ward was now dominated by the Waste Reclamation and Food Fabrication system (nanolathed nutrient slush, output can be adjusted to any species' nutrition requirements) the Ward Armoury ran out of an extended wing of the facility (which a). The control the Coalition was beginning to exert on the Citadel Ward was understandably alarming to the Citadel Council, and so they had tried to evict the Ward Armouries.

Most of C-Sec actually sided with the Coalition, since they'd done nothing untoward other than lower the crime rate by a huge amount. Executor Pallin even claimed grudgingly that "When we get a really tough case on our hands that needs a siege, we sometimes go down to the Armouries to borrow some Marines, usually they agree with our assessment and help us out, the result of that is, well, you introduce someone to a Coalition Marine and quite often their reaction will tell you if they did organized crime before." Of course, there were massed protests in the streets at the eviction attempt, the best thing was the Coalition didn't even try stirring it up, it had a life of its own. Eventually, since the Armouries didn't really seem to be up to anything, the various governments finally stopped trying to evict them.

Side effects of the Tayseri Ward Armoury taking a more active role on that Ward more than any other Ward include zero unexplained population losses over the two years since the Battle of the Citadel, an effective end to organized crime on the Ward—Sure, there were still shakedowns and gangs, but after a couple gang conflicts over the past two years… suffice it to say the gangs have learned to make sure no one gets killed. There are multiple reasons for this, the prime one being that C-Sec on the Ward has the same standing, non-migratory numbers as any other Ward, and non-overworked police officers tend to be much stricter. Also, any deaths on the Ward that are deemed close enough to the Armoury are… investigated rather thoroughly. The Council couldn't exactly protest people coming over to assist C-Sec, at least, without risking being booted out of office, so they more or less let it slide for now.

END CODEX ENTRY

FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE SEE "TAYSERI WARD", "CIVILIAN ARMOURY", ETC.

* * *

A/N: Told you I wasn't done with Loyalty Missions… besides, one recruitment mission remains.

Also, would anyone be terribly pissed if I modified the Quarian-Geth history just slightly? I already established the Morning War was 600 years ago, but a few other minor details will change too… to make things more of an OMFG when Legion and Shepard really start communicating. Please express your opinion regarding minor changes (yes/no) in a review, also…

If anyone wants a hint at "the most hallowed of Asari monuments" before the big, jaw-dropping reveal, please say so in a review.


	25. Vigilante's Crew

A/N: Expect major changes here, as in, about as major as Sidonis being an ex-APC driver.

To S058: I know there aren't any Spartans left, which means ONI is probably partying in relief because they don't have any loose ends to tie up anymore, but at least a few will be sombre over the fact that they can't implant the Spartans with Loyalty Programs and take over what's left of the UNSC. Believe me, if Cortana can use Chief's brain, then that means Spartans are vulnerable to Loyalty Programs… wait, with their augmentations and stuff… Threes would be roughly equal to first-gen Cybrans. Twos would be roughly equal to the average Coalition person today (3800s).

The first hint to the identity of the Asari Monuments is that they contain the first-ever (time-wise) applications of what would be classed as Paragon-like devices, though with only energy generation capability. What's better, the Asari as a people don't know they have this capability, that's a blaring hint (though hindsight may be required) as to what it is.

* * *

Chapter 25: Vigilante's Crew

_Citadel, January 20, 3871_

"Got something for me, Garrus?" Shepard asked, Rita, the barmaid, smiling warmly at him in recognition as she refilled his drink. He was absently noting that all five squad members had LBR-3's in their arsenal… hmm… maybe he should have brought Tali… Ah well, she wouldn't enjoy a drink at Flux anyways… too bad about the immune system and suit problem.

"Yeah, seems like my crew's stuck on the Citadel, too many Blue Suns and Eclipse wandering around the upper areas of the wards." The mercs had kept well clear of the lower Wards, since Coalition Marines tended to prowl the far ends of the "petals" of the station. "Sidonis got a message to me though, they've gotten bogged down in the upper end of Zakera, too many Blue Suns for them to make a good move to get to the Lower Ward and the Armoury. I gave them some of the emergency contact codes you gave me before you, uh… yeah. So all they need to really do is get to the Armoury, but like I said they've been bottled up." Garrus shrugged "He's contacted me for help, apparently the whole team's still alive, but Charn got a nasty wound through his leg that'll slow them down, and some of the others aren't doing so well either… Faran included."

Shepard gaped "Charn, as in the guy from that asteroid we blasted apart near Terra Nova Charn?"

Garrus nodded "Yeah, he's our demolitions guy, most of the squad I built was like that, mercs, smugglers, drug dealers, people who'd repented and wanted to make a difference. Sidonis used to be an APC driver in the Turian Army, served at Shanxi, one of the luckiest son of a bitches I've ever met… after you of course, but he survived being caught near a spread of Salvation bomblets, so yeah… Faran joined because he wanted to make up for his father's mistakes."

Shepard nodded and hummed, showing he was paying close attention "And his father is?"

Garrus took a deep breath "Saren Arterius is his father, and no I didn't tell him Saren was still alive, and the one time I talked to Saren after his boy joined, I told him about it, he understood, and he was okay with it, but told me to keep his son safe and that if I ever visited Procyon with his son in tow, he expected me to tell Faran the truth."

Thane's head was tilted in curiosity "Saren had a son?"

A nod "Yep, used to be a professional Gunship pilot, also served on Shanxi, the guy who ended up flying into a CZAR's hangars and then surrendered after he was stuck inside the thing, but he got booted, probably due to Saren's mess-up."

Shepard snorted, politics were the same everywhere "Huh, well let's go save us some repentant mercs and assorted good people… got any leads, Garrus?"

Another nod "Sidonis says he got in contact with someone called Fade to help hide them. He says we should probably go talk to Chellick about it."

Shepard was silent for a moment, right up until Garrus waved a three-fingered hand in front of his face "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" He said quietly.

The Turian opened his mouth "That this is…"

Garrus was cut off by Jedore, who threw herself chest-first on the bar in frustration, clutching the back of her head in irritation "Ugh, can you guys not make cheesy 'this feels like a video game with all the side quests' comments? It's getting tiresome…" She got back up and watched the two gaping men for a moment before she frowned "Stop staring at my boobs! They may be slightly too big, but they're not as nice as Miranda's… I knew I should have dragged her along with us…" The blond ran an annoyed hand through her hair before reaching forward and wiping off some drool that gathered at the corner of Shepard's mouth, then tapping said mouth shut with two fingers "Shepard, it wouldn't do your reputation a bit of good to drool over me."

Shepard rolled his eyes _If I was drooling over you, I might as well just shoot myself to save Liara the trouble… damn, right, no one except Garrus and Tali know how far my relationship with Liara went… Wow, I didn't realize Aeon plating could make two impact craters in a partly bullet-resistant bar table by chest-bar impact…_ Shepard glanced down, letting his mouth drop open again, and Jedore looked down.

"Uh, oops." She grinned guiltily upon seeing the two roughly round spider-webbed crack craters in the tough plastic and metal bar top "Sorry, didn't realize you boys were staring at that…" then she quickly patched the table over with omni-gel repairs before any of the bar people could notice. "Maybe we should go talk to Chellick now."

* * *

"Fade is former C-Sec, named Harkin, he can be found in the old prefab factory in the Factory District of Zakera…" The terrified Volus squealed at the sight of five people in Coalition Marine Armour towering over him, something most of the Citadel's more intelligent underworld characters wanted to avoid at all costs. "But he's protected by Blue Suns! Please, that's all I know…"

Shepard nodded "Alright, you and your bodyguards can go, thanks for the information. Let's move guys." He started walking off, but Garrus lingered for a moment

"Remember, if we don't find Harkin there… we will find you and you will die." Garrus made an "I'm watching you" motion with his hands toward his relatively recessed helmet's optics before stalking off after Shepard. The volus shivered in his suit at that.

* * *

"Fucking hell, he ran!" Shepard called, rounding the corners to see Harkin's escape, leaving the two Blue Suns troopers there, obviously the idiot had no clue who or rather what was after him, as a pair of Sniper Mode bolts dropped each mercenary from the five LBRs the team was sporting, with an exchanged glance, Shepard swapped to his GLMG while Jedore dual-wielded her Phasic Shotgun in her left hand. Sure, it would cut her accuracy a bit, but Legion, Thane and Garrus were more than enough for sniping duty. "After him!"

The squad didn't need telling twice as they sprinted after Harkin before turning left into a cover-filled area with lots of mercs on their HUD Radars and actual HUDs, the target highlights disappearing quickly as the team set to work. After a while and several kills, however, Shepard's GLMG stopped firing and the rest of the squad looked at him in surprise, where he seemed to be rifling through… garbage? "What are you doing Shepard?" Garrus asked, already guessing the answer.

Shepard held his hand up triumphantly with his find "I found some credits!" He called gleefully before gunning down two LOKIs that came our of a blue shipping container to the group's left. Even Legion was silent for a moment after that, probably building consensus as to the oddity of "Shepard-Commander's" mission priorities, before resuming his combat narrative of "Acquiring, Down, Acquiring, Down" and so on.

They moved through the area, grabbing weapons from fallen enemies to be liquidated for credits as they went. Jedore and Thane were covering the flanks while Shepard, Garrus and Legion battered their way down the middle of the room. Reaching a narrowing in the path, Shepard got into a fistfight with some LOKI mechs. The first was knocked down and out in two punches, the second received a GLMG swing to the torso before Shepard's left hand, with his Laser SMG, could swing up, firing all the while, and put two bolts in the first knocked-down LOKI. Of course, he'd taken a punch to the visor, but Coalition Marine Armour was made of stern stuff, so he'd barely felt it. The others were gunned down by Shepard and co. in quick succession. Right after they cleared the area, Shepard disappeared again, before anyone could even question where he was, Legion informed them Shepard was off near a wall safe… again. Garrus rolled his eyes before sniffing a few times "Harkin is still around here, I can smell him."

Shepard rolled his eyes "Sure, Garrus, let's go then, O Mr. Predator." Turians were apex predators, and had the adaptations typical of them, after all. "Forget OS Integrity, guys, just rush them until they go down, don't go into cover unless your Personal Shields are below half!"

They charged forth, laser, Gauss and Phasic fire ripping into the LOKIs that stupidly stood in their way. Sure, the Raider Industries mechs were tough, and could stand up to any Citadel Tech weaponry with high success, but Coalition weapons… Well, a second of Assault Mode LBR fire could probably cook off an early 21st century Main Battle Tank, or a single Sniper Mode shot, so… it was a bit of a joke, and it was almost astonishing how they managed to take down Shepard and Legion's over-shields with their plasma blasters before all being scrapped. "Shit, Blue Suns Heavies, ahead, with more LOKIs, engage cloak, everyone!" Active Camo would probably be enough to get past the mercs, but LOKIs were better with their sensors, and one shield ripple would be enough to make them targets. Cloaking, on the other hand, would make them invisible to LOKIs as well, so…

* * *

"Forget it, get to a safe distance then uncloak guys, this is just plain mean, worse than a freaking turkey shoot." Shepard shook his head sadly as he put another bullet in the brain of yet ANOTHER merc.

Jedore apparently had a different definition of "safe distance" than the rest of the crew, since she spent the time the crew took going for cover to lash one of her combat knives to the barrel of her Phasic Shotgun, well, under the barrel…

She put the makeshift bayonet through the neck of a merc with a vicious short left before firing a blast that blew the merc's head to dust and continued on to glance off the weak shields of a LOKI, which died moments later to two more PSG blasts. Her right hand was occupied with knife-fighting three more mercs simultaneously, beating their guns aside and slashing into their joints while her left hand was blasting one mech after another.

While Jedore was dealing with her foes, the others were methodically cutting down the others before they could do much. They were slowly working their way up, until Garrus picked something up… "Shepard, I'm picking something up from up ahead, I think… it's a YMIR! And it's fully upgraded!"

Shepard cursed "Fucking hell, that's gonna be a tough one, and we don't have any heavy weapons that are safe to use on it." They were indoors after all. "Take cover and try to eliminate it! Electron Grenades authorized!" Sonance Grenades, when dialled up to full blast, could be hideously dangerous for the health of a building if it didn't have structural fields.

A volley soared out toward the Mech, two of them being swatted aside in flight and a third kicked away, the remaining two detonated after bouncing off the infantry support walker's armour and didn't even take down the shields, so far were they from the big but surprisingly nimble mech. Partly due to it being a "Ultra Deluxe" package, which was almost a rip-off in price but had all possible upgrades applied, it also had reinforced shield bubble, personal, armour-hugging shields as a second layer, tech armour, better plating, and a C-10 as well as a Gauss Rifle on its right arm. Oh, and that wasn't to mention the Immortality Protocol that would slowly repair and reactivate the mech if it went down. Eclipse preferred doing their own modifications, but Blue Suns didn't have as much technical expertise.

A K-12 Punisher Grenade hit Thane's half-gone over-shield and popped the protective bubble before a Lockdown Round took down his personal shields by over a quarter and Gauss Rifle fire peppered what was left. Against any Citadel Tech soldier, that would effectively have been a guaranteed kill, against Coalition Marine Armour, not so much. "Garrus, keep hitting it with Overload!" Shepard called as another Sniper Mode shot from his LBR glanced off the personal shield of the mech, he was still waiting for the Overcharge to cool down. Thane's Overcharge had just taken down the Tech Armour after Jedore, Garrus and Legion took down the over-shield bubble before they began to fire on the other mercs advancing with the YMIR. Shepard and Thane exchanged a nod before firing their LBRs, propped up on their cover and lobbed Electron Grenades over said cover. The ground shook slightly with the explosions, but the YMIR remained standing and managed to whittle down Thane's shields to nothing before it finally collapsed on its side and the assassin ducked back into cover. A large scorch mark was visible on his chest plate from where the K-12 rocket had caught him and taken down his structural field by nearly half.

"Stay in cover, Thane, I'll make sure that Immortality Protocol doesn't activate." Shepard did so by tossing another pair of Electron Grenades under the wreck and blowing it to hell.

* * *

They managed to hack a bunch of terminals, get some money, and find a forged ID before they came to the next combat area and painstakingly ground their way through LOKIs and mercs. The last obstacle was two more YMIRs, both also, annoyingly, the "Ultra Deluxe" variety. Shepard was out of patience, and so, he decided to do it the easy way… "Cloak, everyone, cloak!" He called as he boosted on top of a still activating mech and climbed onto it, firing into its armour until he'd hewn a hole. John stuck all five of his Electron Grenades and his two Sonance Grenades, packaged together, into the hole before flying off and triggering the explosives.

The mech seemed to radiate light from cracks in its armour and bulge for a moment before it blew apart in a huge fireball. The lack of a crater in the floor was testament to how different an Ultra Deluxe package was from a regular, unmodified one. The other one was slowly whittled down, since it had fully activated and couldn't be taken out by as cheap a shot, but in the end, it went down in a series of ground-shaking explosions form grenades, LBR and PSG fire alike.

* * *

Garrus held his LBR out in exactly the right spot to clothesline the fleeing man, giving Shepard and Jedore, who'd been casually strolling after the guy, a few good laughs and drawing a smile from Thane. Legion stayed quiet. "Where are Sidonis and my squad?" Garrus demanded, yanking Harkin up by the neck and throwing him against a wall, letting the trash slump to the floor in a heap.

"I can't sell out my customers, it's bad for business." Harkin rasped after coughing a few times from the pressure of the Turian's talons on his throat.

Garrus snorted, then tossed the man, partly using armour strength, so he flew over Garrus's shoulder and landed on his back on the ground. If he'd been a pre-Quantum Age human, he'd probably have broken his neck, though that was still likely to happen if Garrus had his way, with how he'd put an armoured boot on the man's neck "A broken neck is bad for business too… or maybe a brain splattered across a floor." He flicked the safety off his LBR and pushed it against the man's forehead.

Harkin pissed himself in fear as he held up his hands shakily, trying to lean back against the cold, unforgiving floor to distance himself from the rifle barrel that was pushing him down into said cold, unforgiving floor "Alright, alright, I'll contact Sidonis! Where do you want to meet with him?"

* * *

_Citadel, January 20, 3871_

"I knew you'd come for us, boss." Lantar Sidonis, ex-APC driver, ex-vigilante sidekick, and current refugee from the Blue Suns, was obviously relieved as he spoke. He'd brought Shepard's crew back to their current hideout, where they'd begun treating the wounded members of Garrus's old squad.

"Thanks for the confidence, Sidonis." Garrus called back from where he was using his medi-gel dispensers on Faran, Saren's son.

Shepard, on the other hand, was down on one knee next to a familiar Batarian, aiming his medi-gel dispenser and Tissue Regeneration Accelerator at the man's leg wound "I never expected to see you again, and with Garrus as part of his old squad of all things…" Shepard shook his head with a rueful grin.

Charn shrugged "What can I say? After that Balak fiasco I saw the error of my ways, so I gave up pirating and joined up with Archangel on Omega. I didn't know he was Garrus Vakarian until he revealed it to me though, quite a while after I joined up."

Shepard nodded "Huh, well, repenting is good, I think I may be able to secure you guys a place on a Coalition refugee world…" He looked around at the five-man crew Garrus had commanded shrewdly.

* * *

_Mess Hall, CSC Normandy, January 21, 3871_

"That was really nice, what you did for Garrus's crew." Jedore said, leaning forward slightly on the two-person table, forcing Shepard to avert his eyes from her to avoid looking down her light golden hued, full and perfectly shaped cleavage (she was wearing casual clothes for once). True, he would be steadfast to Liara until it was definite that she wanted him to go die in some desolate corner of the galaxy far from her eyes, but he was still only a man, and having so many "prime female specimens" (Mordin had said something along those lines) on his boat wasn't doing his performance any good, especially considering the pills he took to keep his armour's crotch plate from becoming painfully in the way. In the past, he'd only had to shift uncomfortably, but after Miranda's—and there was another possible female predator after his blood—upgrades, things were much more painful whenever he got hard. Considering he had the libido of a typical twenty-five-year-old male (early 21st century reckoning) and couple that to the fact that he hadn't gotten any release for almost a month (his hand wasn't cutting it, it seemed nothing did these days), and he had one big problem on his hands.

"Uh, yeah, I guess." Shepard scratched the back of his head at the suddenly awkward moment.

Jedore smiled, thinking _Shepard could be so cute sometimes… especially when he was nervous, it's fun teasing him…_ Her brain snickered at that _You know why you're "teasing" him, Jedore Massani, just look at him, looks, personality, money, he's got everything going for him, and you want a piece, or at least a taste, of it._ Her eyes raked down his body, taking in how his shirt was just tight enough to show the muscles underneath "You're funny when you act all awkward, Shepard." She pulled up her top a bit to help disperse some of the awkwardness that had gathered in the air.

John looked around the mess before fixing his brown eyes on Jedore's hazel ones "James always said I was too awkward with women, but he's even worse, he just hasn't realized it yet, or rather, hasn't had a chance to." He grinned, and noticed how Jedore was staring at him, most likely his mouth from the way her eyes were a little lower than meeting his own "Uh, my eyes are up here…" He gestured toward said eyes with a hand almost nervously.

"I am aware of that, Shepard." Her eyes met his and she poked her tongue out just far enough to moisten her lips before she smiled lazily, her eyelids drooping slightly "Shepard, are you taking note of where my eyes are?" She was both internally laughing her ass off and awaiting his response for some reason she didn't care to know of.

Shepard's mouth was suddenly very dry from the way she looked at him, and he barely managed to croak out "Uh, yeah, I guess…" _I don't want to get devoured alive because I wasn't watching you carefully enough_ His brain finished sarcastically, though it did not voice that part since it would probably result in him being, well, devoured alive.

Jedore smirked before tucking some of her golden blonde hair behind her ear "That's excellent, Shepard, you have a survival instinct, good…" _You know perfectly well you wanted to say something else, Jedore Massani, why didn't you?_ Her brain screeched at her, and was utterly ignored.

Shepard mentally sighed in relief "Good to see you keep a sharp eye on those around you, Jedore, now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go talk to Kelly, see if she has anything new for me."

Jedore wasn't entirely sure what to do about the sudden surge of irritation toward the redheaded Yeoman, a surge she recognized as jealousy. Therefore, she simply nodded and said "Have fun with Kelly, Shepard." before going back to her breakfast, frowning at herself for her diction.

* * *

_Bridge, CSC Normandy, January 21, 3871_

"Hey Kelly, how's life been?"

The cheery redhead finished whatever she was doing before turning around to talk "It's been alright, but now that you're here it's much better." _His voice is so nice, confident, manly, strong, and of course, polite, kind and reasonably submissive when he should be…_ Kelly thought while smiling at Shepard.

Shepard smiled back, thinking: _That was what I was afraid of…_ "In what way, Kelly?" He had a shit-eating grin plastered on his face as he asked, but internally Shepard was trembling in his armour's boots and praying to whatever deities existed that she meant the "There's some not-so-urgent messages here for you and I'm not sure how long I can delay these guys for" variety.

Kelly shrugged "I just feel better when you're around, is there anything wrong with that?"

"Uh, nothing I guess, thanks Kelly, is there anything I should know?" At least he didn't stick his foot in his mouth too badly, nor was he too rude in changing the topic, or so he hoped.

Kelly smirked knowingly "Grunt's been unusually agitated lately, and Mordin seems to have encountered something as well."

* * *

_Mindscape of Liara T'Soni, Bodily Location: Ilium, January 21, 3871_

For once, Liara wasn't dreaming about herself and Shepard. During the two years he'd been dead, she'd sometimes have odd dreams of meeting and talking with Shepard, about what it was like being dead, he'd said it was a very lonely thing, but that she shouldn't worry, Destiny had plans for them. Quite often they would simply sit there and hold one another, taking comfort in each other's presence, though she'd been shocked when, the first time she'd leaned her head on his chest, she had heard no pulse. She had thought of the dreams as just her mind trying to comfort her during hard times, or that was when they would come to her, but much to her surprise, the John Shepard who was often present in her dreams had been right. He had come back to her after all… now if only the damned e-mail system would work. Hell, even her armour's uplink wasn't allowing her to contact him… Then again, if she hadn't been such an obstinate ass the first couple times he had come to seek her out after his resurrection, she wouldn't be in such a bind now, would she?

She stopped her musings as her dream seemed to resolve itself after flashing past thousands of scenes, scenes she couldn't remember ever having been witness to. She was looking into a screen, typing furiously on a holographic keyboard, murmuring to herself, well, not herself, but whoever this being she was looking through the eyes of. She noted from the vision that the being had extremely pale violet, nearly white skin, and that the blush and veins showed up as human red and blue through the skin instead of Asari purple. Liara frowned in her mind as she took in the scene, and the hushed voices in the background, it was obviously a control room of some sort… and whoever she was looking through the eyes of seemed to be the commanding officer.

Said commanding officer finished typing in her stuff and bowed her head sadly as the console seemed to process/execute its commands. She spoke in a voice Liara knew only too well—her own—and the language used was that of the Asari, what humans called a dialect of "English". "Each of these souls is finite and precious… and I'm close… close to saving them all." She brought her finger down on a holographic button that appeared before her, and the screen went dark. The woman Liara was seeing through the eyes of looked up toward a small holographic picture frame perched on top of her workstation… a picture frame that had a silvery mirror attached to one side of the picture, a picture of a man whose face Liara was also intimately familiar with. Literally, she was intimately familiar with that face, for it looked almost exactly like her John Shepard.

Liara gasped as the vision played on, the person she was seeing the memory of picking up the frame and smiling down at it, giving Liara a good look of what she would have looked like as a human with the small mirror. From her perspective, Liara raised an appreciative eyebrow, this person, who she was sure was some counterpart of her from some reality, had long, wavy, dark brown hair that cascaded over her shoulders, a face that was almost her own but human white and pink, and the same blue eyes Liara herself had. The vision, or perhaps memory, faded after that, leaving Liara to wake up puzzled and more than a little alarmed. _Did John find another woman?_ Part of her mind fretted as she did her morning business.

Her rational mind snorted derisively. _If John had moved on to another woman, do you really expect him to find a woman who looked so damned much like you it wasn't even funny? That woman with the picture frame was essentially you, if you had been born human._

_Still, how do you explain the picture of John and the odd controls you haven't ever seen before? You didn't even recognize the damned style!_

_Well it was obviously someone who looked like John and James but it wasn't them, first of all there were no circuits, some scarring was visible, and…_ Her rational mind trailed off at the lack of differences between her John Shepard and the man in the vision.

_And what, T'Soni? It was basically John with a few more scars, who's to say he wasn't wearing make-up for his circuits?_

_It was a dream, Liara, just a dream…_ She quelled her insecure side for now, it could wait, she couldn't let a silly dream affect her priorities.

The first priority was to survive.

The second was to get her man back from the numerous beautiful women on his ship, most of them vying for him.

The third was to take down the Shadow Broker.

* * *

A/N: OHO! Things begin to get more complicated… Lots of surprises loom ahead, and in hindsight, things will become clear where they were evidently not before.

Before you start yelling at me about languages and the impossibility of languages being the same, please do not say it, you will understand eventually.


	26. The Devouring One

A/N: Horrified anyone would think I'd put ONI in the Coalition. Also, has anyone noticed how STUPID some of Halo's canon is? The Super MAC Platforms would cook themselves with waste heat and/or fly themselves into the atmosphere in short order if the yield was really that huge. Kicking a 2000 pound mass 5 meters without armour would mean your foot would need to accelerate extremely fast on the downswing and be very heavy, you'd probably liquefy flesh with that much acceleration and centrifugal force plus gravity!

Snippet regarding the Dyson Sphere/Ring world concept just for your viewing pleasure right at the beginning.

The human version of Liara looks just like Jillian Murray, her face model. That is all I'll say for now, keep up the suspense, you know…

* * *

Chapter 26: The Devouring One

_Engineering, CSC Normandy, January 21, 3871_

"You know how the Council builds Dyson Spheres around Blue Super giants to manufacture anti-matter? Why didn't the Coalition try that sort of thing for power generation, at least in the past?" Tali asked over the quantum link she shared with James, both had some time off right now so…

"By the time we had the tech to build Dyson Spheres, Quantum Energy generation had already become more feasible and less maintenance-intensive." James shrugged. "And before you even say it we've had enough fiction 'revolving' around ring-worlds to establish that they're rather exorbitant in cost and impractical unless they're some sort of doomsday weapons platform." He of course had no clue how right he was. "Things are just more practical to build on planets, especially since we could use Mass Extractors and not rely on volatile Mass Fabricators or a Paragon, unless we're talking about interstellar listening posts or sensor arrays."

Joker came over the PA "Jumping to Tuchanka in twenty, Tuchanka in Eighteen!"

"I'd better go, talk to you later James! Thanks for explaining to me." Tali said hurriedly.

The Cybran on the other side of the link nodded in understanding and said "No problem Tali, good luck." before they closed the channel almost as one.

* * *

_Tuchanka, January 21, 3871_

"Sorry, our leader's talking to an emissary from another clan, Gatagog Uvenk, you'll have to wait here" The guard shrugged when Shepard glared at him "I might not like him, but it's the procedure."

Wrex, with his old Seraphim Heavy Armour (which had downloaded the latest updates and integrated them from the quantum uplink it had and its self-repair modules) was sitting on his throne looking thoroughly bored with the Krogan waving his arms about and yelling in front of him. Seeing Shepard, he waved before walking up to the other Krogan and head-butting him, causing him to fall on his ass. Wrex turned with a smirk to Shepard after dismissing the other Krogan. "Hah, knew their plan would work out, after all…" Wrex left the sentence hanging.

"I. AM. CYBRAN!" Both Cybran and Krogan laughed uncontrollably at the Cybran's yell, with the result of Tali, Jack, Grunt, Samara and Mordin all looking between them like they'd finally lost it.

After they stopped laughing, Shepard continued "How has life been?"

"Meh, you know us Krogan from the Codex, our territorial instincts forbid co-habitation on even the largest ships, it's been a bit of a mess around here with all the clans fighting among themselves for space, but I've fixed some of it, or I'd like to think… I missed the Normandy at first, the quarters were perfect for, well, pretty much everyone, except maybe Asari, then again, that's what the Mess Hall was for, congregation. Seemed like the design could please everyone and anyone… I'm rambling… I never ramble…" Wrex frowned.

Shepard raised an eyebrow "I seem to remember you pulling a Rambo regularly back on the Normandy."

"Heh, well, you have anything interesting to talk about?" _He usually had back on the Normandy whenever he came to talk to me… then again considering how much time he spent with his Asari it's not surprising that he wouldn't just come down to talk for no apparent reason._

"Something's up with Grunt, you mind helping him out while I investigate Mordin's old assistant?"

Wrex snorted and waved it off "No problem, Shepard, this guy's assistant, huh? Well, there's not much intel on Salarians around here, but the scouts are due to report back in about two hours, so…I've uploaded to you the map for the region with people you might want to talk to."

Shepard elbow-nudged Wrex, grinning "I guess we'll do the traditional thing, eh? Walk around and act semi-bored while saving a family of ducks crossing a highway because there's nothing better to do."

"You got it, Shepard."

* * *

They'd walked over to a store called Ratch's Wares and were talking to the owner, apparently the local Pyjaks had been getting into the food supply and "There's just too many, maybe you could cleanse their hive for us?" That was why they were mowing down waves of the critters while they tried to rush toward the food storages.

"You know, maybe this will be of interest to Grunt… as dinner, of course" Tali said as she sprayed more Pyjaks with purifying flame.

Pretty soon, they'd cleared out the nest completely, and they went back to Ratch's Wares to talk to Ratch, who was rather thankful about it, and said that Pyjak Meat would be back on the market soon. A creature slunk around the corner of the shop while they were talking, and Shepard and crew didn't take note of it until the yellow contact was close enough to nuzzle Shepard's hand.

The Marine turned around and looked downward, coming eye-to-eye with a large armoured creature with wickedly long and sharp front claws, one long claw per front leg. "WHAT THE FLYING FUCK IS A DEVOURING ONE DOING ON TUCHANKA?" Since the creature seemed to be non-hostile, Shepard was merely gesticulating around wildly instead of punching the creature or kicking it aside.

Ratch was mildly surprised by the human's shock "So, he's a 'Devouring One', huh? Well, whatever he is, he sure is nice to have around, hell, could've sworn he actually talked to me a couple times."

Shepard had stopped waving his arms around like a crazed ape and was simply staring at the oversized, greatly enhanced Zergling. "Hello, what's your name?"

_My name's Urz… _Shepard's eyebrows went up, and the Devouring One's eyes widened in response, then it nodded knowingly _Nice to see someone who can actually sort of receive psionic speech._ The voice seemed to simply hang in the air, audible only to those capable of understanding psi-transmissions with any clarity. From the raised eyebrow lights, Samara, Tali and Jack could hear it, but Mordin couldn't.

"So, Urz, how'd you end up here?"

_Meh, the Dropship that was carrying me around was shot down near the end of the Brood War, and I ended up stranded on some random planet until a bunch of explorers came along. I hitched a ride in their ship and got off at the next stop so I wouldn't have to hurt any of them. This planet is pretty bad, not as volcanic as Zerus but still pretty bad, would be nice to not have my radiators constantly open._ The Devouring One gestured with one finger claw, not the long one, toward the membranous "wings" on his back.

Shepard raised one eyebrow "Radiators, are you…"

The beefed-up Zergling bobbed its head _Yes I am freaking serious, and before you even say it I was one of the few Zerg that decided to stay on Raynor's Raiders' side, that's where I learned sarcasm. In case you didn't know, we "Elite Zerg" are sentient and self-determinate, it's just that most of us devote ourselves to_ Urz raised his claws and Shepard and co tensed _"The good of the swarm"_ Urz said mentally and sarcastically, using his huge forearm blades to do air quotes, and muffling a snicker at Shepard and co's dropped mouths as shown by their helmet optics. _I heard that drooling inside your armour isn't good for you… anyways, what's your name?_

"I'm Shepard, John Shepard."

_As in Commander Shepard, saviour of the Citadel, Hero of Elysium, Veteran of Mindoir, Sole Survivor of Akuze, and so on? Huh, interesting…_ Urz curled his main claw back along his forearm groove and held himself up on his left hand's four normal clawed digits while using his other hand to scratch himself under the chin as if thoughtful.

While the Devouring One was sitting around thinking, Shepard was talking to Ratch "can I buy some Pyjak meat? Urz looks a bit skinnier than a typical Devouring One would be."

"Sure, though I still have no idea why you'd want to feed him, he seems perfectly healthy to me, and whenever he gets near another critter here they run off in fear…" Ratch handed over the meat for credits "Did you know that Urz likes going down to the varren fighting pit to watch the fights? The guards don't try to stop him, not after he tunnelled his way into the stands in spite once, and when they tried to shoot him he gave them some nasty injuries. After that Urdnot Wrex ordered that Urz be left alone unless he authorizes it, since he has been helping with the pest problem around here, namely wild varren, but Pyjaks were just too good at climbing for him to handle."

"Hey Urz!" Shepard called.

_What is it Shepard?_ The Devouring One's red gun barrel eyes widened slightly when he looked over to the sight of… _Pyjak meat! I always wanted to know what the critters tasted like, but they were just too damned fast at climbing for me. I mean, I'm good, but I'm big, bigger, and heavier than a typical Zergling, so for climbing… yeah… wait, is that for me?_

Shepard held the meat out to Urz and nodded "Yeah, have fun… Wait, I thought Zerglings were a lot more vicious in their eating?"

Urz looked up from where he'd been holding the large cut of Pyjak meat, probably the entire back of one of the critters, in his four-clawed hands while he'd been sitting on his haunches and gnawing pieces off, and glared at Shepard. _I'm a Devouring One, not a Zergling, hence I don't share their messy eating habits unless I'm really in a hurry, and I can actually reflex my arm claws, repeat after me, Dee-Vow-Ur-Ing One._

"Sorry, so was the Ur part the reason why you named yourself Urz?"

Urz didn't look up from where he was tearing off chunks of meat with his teeth this time _Yeah, it sounded like a reasonably nice name…_

"Well, Urz, have fun, I need to go now." Shepard turned and began to walk away before a voice came from behind him.

_You know, your psionic signature is very similar to one the ancestors of the Zerg knew long ago, I can't place the genetic memory right now, but since you're the only one who's been nice to me for no reason, I might as well follow you around. That old genetic memory might not be good for much else, but your psionic signature is sure to be a herald of battle, I can remember that, and I haven't had a real good fight for years… can't afford annoying the locals, ya know._ The Devouring One, still chewing the last chomp of its meal, appeared to Shepard's left, slinking along next to the black and red armoured Marine. Shepard blinked, then nodded down at the beefed up Zergling.

* * *

"You need a combustion manifold…" Shepard concluded bluntly, looking up at the large APC that was just over the size of a Snoop Land Scout, ending the mechanic's rant on how annoying the thing was to repair.

The mechanic nodded after a brief silence from having his rant cut short "Yes."

Shepard sighed "That's much better. Tali, scan the functional Tomkah over there, figure out which part's the manifold, and upload the schematics to the rest of us so we can fix this one."

"Got it, Shepard… uploading now, we've got enough Omni-gel to affect the repairs, let's do this thing." The Quarian stated after a bit of work. The five squad members put their omni-gel dispensers together to create the manifold inside the vehicle, hidden from the eyes of those on the outside. The omni-gel reserves were nearing depletion when Shepard resolved the mass issue by reclaiming a nearby boulder while the mechanic wasn't looking (the more secrecy about nanolathing, the better for the galaxy).

"Alright, it's fixed." Shepard announced when progress was completed and the manifold was installed. "See you some other time."

"Thanks for the help… here's some credits, it's not much, but I hope it helps you on whatever mission you're on." The Krogan handed Shepard a credit chit, which he accepted, since it was considered insulting among Krogan if you didn't accept compensation offered in thanks.

* * *

Now, they were truly lounging around doing nothing. There was still an hour before the scouts would be back, hence… _Why don't we go down to the varren fighting pits? We are bored, aren't we?_ Urz suggested.

"That's not a bad idea, Urz." Shepard agreed "It's not like we'll have much else to do."

Mordin had finally snapped out of his muttering to himself about psychic communication and questioned "What's not a bad idea?"

"Urz says we should go down to the varren fighting pits to pass time." Shepard explained plainly.

"Interesting prospect, if you're into that sort of thing." The Salarian said as they walked toward the pits.

Samara looked around the arena in disgust as they walked in "The Krogan really needs someone to teach them compassion, perhaps I will try once we are finished with your Collector hunt, though… I will likely require many, many bullets."

"There is a stage in most civilizations where pain of others is pleasurable to witness, we humans had that stage around four thousand to thirty-five hundred years ago."

"Asari never had such a stage." Samara stated.

Shepard looked to Tali "Quarians didn't either."

Jack snorted "You guys are all soft, come on, Shepard, let's bet!"

"Alright, I guess… Urz, you want to win some spending money?"

Urz glared at Shepard from around the level of his waist _I might have been willing to kill just about anything back when I was with the swarm, but I've learned fairness, it would be utterly unreasonable if I entered, EVERYONE would bet on me, and if I lost on purpose they'd notice._

"It's uncommon to see a non-combative Zerg." Shepard shrugged "Oh well, we'll just watch then, perhaps even learn a couple things from it."

* * *

"The only thing I learned from that was to not come back here after the Collector quest if I want to uphold the Justicar Code and not need to kill half a clan's worth of Krogan, their population is low enough as is."

Tali darted past them to lean over a railing, her Aeon Medium Armour's helmet already off and her suit seals quickly popping "The only thing I learned from that was to not let yourself get too nauseous while you're wearing your enviro-suit." Tali gasped out as she retched onto the ground through her partly opened visor, though no one else could see her face anyways, she paled as she realized what she'd done. She had gotten used to not wearing her suit or at least having the visor off in her quarters on the Normandy so quickly she had opened her visor… on TUCHANKA! Tuchanka, where the legendarily resilient Krogan had only been an average species… Tuchanka, where potentially lethal (for Quarians) toxins filled the air… "Fucking hell!" She swore as she sealed the helmet again and quickly ran the suit diagnostics. The bacteria that had lodged in her airway were already beginning to activate from dormancy, and her antibiotic injectors weren't working… how could it be? Her voice shook as she turned to Shepard "Shepard, my antibiotic injectors aren't working, and an infection is beginning to set in…"

Shepard frowned worriedly "Do you need medical attention? Should I call in the Restorer?"

Tali held up a three-fingered hand as she looked down at her status indicator, which still read "healthy, no danger" before she looked back to Shepard "No, I'll be okay, at least until this mess with Mordin's assistant is over with."

Shepard bit his lip "Alright, I guess… Your armour's medical programs should take care of it if there's going to be any potentially lasting damage… But if you feel uncomfortable about it or just plain uncomfortable, you can take the Restorer back to the Normandy at any time…"

Tali shook her head after pulling her helmet back on and sealing it "No, really, I'll be okay, if a single speck of bacteria could kill us we'd have died out long ago."

Shepard shrugged "If you say so…"

* * *

A/N: I bet you didn't expect THAT… then again SC Wiki does have an article on the Wise Old Torrasque so technically I concluded that Elite Zerg are at least somewhat sentient, hence why they are so much more effective. Then again, I didn't expect this chapter to be so goddamned short, don't worry, there will be abundant recompense later…

Any suggestions welcome, but if they're too detailed, use PM after hinting in a review. Thank you for reading.


	27. Sins of a Salarian STG

A/N: I think it's stupid that Spartans can flip Scorpion tanks (which, by the way, are not very well designed). Also, the Coalition doesn't bother with super soldiers because that's what the Mech Marine concept started as, equip a man with a powerful armoured suit and give him the weapons to take on an army. Other reasons… you'll just have to wait until I write the Mass Effect: Galactic Colossus spin-off i.e. "negotiations" between the Coalition and Council right after the Turian War, and yes, a GC will be involved.

You'd think they'd have "better" soldiers huh? Well let's just wait until we start meeting the Covenant and we'll see if you still think that after Shepard goes 1v1 melee against one Mgalekgolo and comes out on top (the only reasons the Coalition Marines bother much with cover are because of Disruptor Ammo and caution being the better part of valour, besides, they can shoot by gun-cam link. The Covenant conspicuously lacks the former ability, so…). The Codex in this chapter may help clear some things up too.

* * *

Chapter 27: Sins of a Salarian STG

_Tuchanka, January 21, 3871_

"Tali, you sure you're alright?"

The Quarian waved it off "I'm feeling fine, Shepard, don't worry, it's time to go talk to the chief scout, let's get moving."

* * *

"So they're hiding in an old hospital?" Shepard asked, crossing his arms over his chest.

_Damn, with all the blood and medicines, I don't think I'll be able to track their scent as effectively…_ Urz thought beside Shepard, and the four more human-like members of the squad nodded at the thought.

The chief scout didn't pick up on it, nor did Mordin from the way he didn't move "Yeah, reckon they're feeling a little under the weather with how successful Urdnot has been with its message of unity and strength. By the way, I sent a scout to investigate the situation. He hasn't come back, if you find him, tell him to get his ass back here."

Shepard nodded "No problem."

"If you need a transport, I have a Tomkah available to take you to the hospital."

Shepard grinned "Thanks, but we'll use our own thing…"

The Krogan shrugged "Suit yourself."

* * *

Wrex let Grunt watch the proceedings of "negotiation" (i.e. debating) for a while before finally losing his patience with Uvenk, wondering why he'd called the Gatagog leader back anyways, probably to be diplomatic like he'd learned over the centuries off Tuchanka. After telling Uvenk to wait for a bit, he turned to Grunt "Where are you from, whelp? Was your clan destroyed before you could learn what was expected of you?"

"I have no clan, I was tank-bred by warlord Okeer, My line distilled from Kredak, Moro, Shiagur." Grunt ignored the irritating circling of Uvenk, for now, he was a fly that could be swatted when necessary.

"You recite warlords, yet you are the offspring of a syringe!" The Gatagog leader sneered.

Grunt snorted at the older, bigger Krogan "I am pure Krogan, you should be in awe."

Wrex nodded at how Grunt handled it, less violently than most Krogan, yet retaining an air of might and superiority at the same time, Shepard taught him well "Okeer is a very old name… a very hated name."

Grunt shrugged "He is dead."

Wrex snorted "How could he be alive? You're with Shepard! Shepard, you are listening in, right?" Wrex checked his comm. network panel on his Seraphim Heavy Armour's HUD, sure enough, Shepard was there.

"I need to be up to speed, what's wrong with me?"

Wrex nodded slowly "Hmm, Shepard taught you to ask questions for yourself, good. Nothing's wrong with you, you're just becoming a full adult."

Mordin, who was also in the net, commented "Ah, puberty ritual, common in species with hormone-driven reproductive urges."

"I don't care what you call it, Professor Solus, Krogan undergo the Rite of Passage" Wrex blinked at Mordin's half-dropped jaw, and then added "Yes, I do know of you, the missing horn is a dead giveaway."

Uvenk huffed "Too far Wrex! Your clan may rule, but this thing is not Krogan!" He stalked off.

Wrex rolled his eyes "Idiot… So, Grunt, do you wish to stand with Urdnot?"

Grunt looked pointedly at the transmission box on his HUD where Shepard was, the Commander noted it and said "This is his choice."

Grunt surveyed the run-down camp for a moment before turning back to Wrex "It is in my blood, it is what I am for."

Wrex nodded approvingly "Good boy, when Shepard comes back, speak with the shaman on the second level, give him a good show and he'll set you on the path. In the meantime, feel free to look around."

* * *

_First time I've been on such a smooth ride._ Urz thought aloud, watching the clouds soar by the holographic viewport.

"That's what's so great about being a Coalition soldier." Shepard stated before manipulating his holo-console so the Restorer would land outside the hospital district (the courtyards were far too small and the flat areas of the damaged roof similarly too small for the massive T3 AA Gunship). Normally, they'd just jump, but with Urz around, that was a bit risky, if it was flat ground, a Zergling or Devouring One could jump down a cliff of up to forty meters without trouble, but Shepard didn't want to risk it. Despite loud mental complaints from Urz regarding the fact that Devouring Ones had tough enough carapace, even tougher than normal Hydralisks, to deal with it, he landed the massive craft outside the district.

The first things they bumped into were some Klixen, creatures that would scuttle close and try to use their claws, but, as Urz found out painfully, exploded on death. _I think we just figured out where the Queen of Blades assimilated Banelings from, but at least she had the "wisdom" to not have them explode on death, or a Siege Tank shell could start a huge chain reaction._ Urz called mentally as he stumbled back dazedly away from the last Klixen while it scuttled toward him just before dying to multiple laser bolts and gauss rounds

They went through a breach in the hospital district enclosure to their right and were met with seven varren and another four Klixen, as well as two Blood Pack Heavies that tried to fire rockets at the Devouring One. He nimbly sidestepped the rockets, which had a hard time locking onto the partial natural stealth of Zerg Carapace. Okay, K-12 rockets could still lock onto carapace, but against small targets it was a lot more difficult, especially with the partial natural stealth of the carapace. As soon as Shepard shouted for a charge, Urz immediately mixed it up with the varren, scattering them as he barrelled through, leaving four dead or dying varren in his wake before he pounced on one of the Blood Pack Heavies, gouging away at the armour with his claws while the Vorcha beneath him thrashed and tried to get him off. Behind him, a volley of explosions rang out as the Klixen died from gunfire, and the varren and the other Heavy died too, just before Urz finally kicked some dirt on the Vorcha's corpse.

Jack whistled as she looked over at the mauled Vorcha "Wow, you really don't like people firing anti-armour weapons at you, do you?"

_Bad experience with Siege Tank friendly fire, that's all, and I never even found out who did it._ Urz shrugged when they looked at him _What? Devouring Ones are tougher than normal Hydralisks, that's why I survived._

The squad proceeded up onto an old, broken highway, and Blood Pack attacked them on it. Big mistake, the cover available made sniping by the squad, biotics, fire (Tali) and claws (Urz) all supremely deadly in the near-classic urban warfare scenario.

The next group, however, had Urz hiding behind Shepard, calling _Flamethrower guys inbound_ in fear. Once they'd finally taken the next group down, Urz relaxed and mentally said _Sorry, bad genetic memories of Zerglings and derivative strains mixing it up with Firebats_ as he shuffled along behind Shepard.

Shepard stopped short, and Urz head-butted him in a most literal way, which meant the Devouring One rubbed its snout in annoyance at the sudden encounter with armour plating "Wait, can't Zerglings climb vertically? Why did you say Pyjaks were too good at climbing for you?"

_Yeah, we can, but I'm not as fast, nor as light, so some things can hold their weight but not mine… And yes I'm heavier than a typical Zergling, happy now?_

Shepard nodded "Alright, let's get going then."

* * *

_Weyrloc-held Hospital, Tuchanka, January 21, 3871_

Mordin looked around "Repurposed Krogan hospital, sturdy, built to stand up to punishment… though not of the Nanodart variety."

* * *

_Restorer T3 AA Gunship, Tuchanka, January 21, 3871_

"Huh, Hospitals aren't fun to fight through." Garrus snorted, lying back but still keeping his eyes on the situation holo.

Jedore tilted her head at the Turian "What is fun to fight through?"

Garrus shrugged "Gardens, electronics shops, antique stores, but only if they're classy." Jacob snorted from where he was sitting at that.

* * *

_Weyrloc-held Hospital, Tuchanka, January 21, 3871_

Mordin noticed something their HUDs wasn't highlighting as a contact "That body, human, need to take a look." He scanned the corpse "Sores, tumours, ligatures showing restraint at wrists and ankles, track marks for repeated injections."

"Is what they gave him contagious?" That translated into "is 'nuclear' cremation of this area necessary?" But Shepard didn't say it.

The Salarian shook his head "No, appears to be cultivation of cancerous cells, aggravated by malnourishment, torture, not a virus, probably testing vectors to attack Genophage, primary goal not infection of humans. Humans useful as test subjects, genetically diverse, allows exploration of treatment methods."

Shepard squatted next to the corpse "Experimenting on live subjects, huh?"

"Never used live subjects myself, sloppy, unethical, disgusting, used by brute force researchers, not thinkers, no place in proper science, Krogan use of humans unsurprising though."

Shepard snorted "I imagine you had to do live subject testing while developing the new Genophage."

Mordin regarded Shepard for a moment as he spoke "No, unnecessary, limited experiments to simulations, corpses, clones tissue samples, high-level tests on varren. No tests on species with members capable of calculus, simple rule, never broke it."

Shepard grunted "Huh, well for this experiment wouldn't something native to Tuchanka work better, Varren maybe?"

"Yes, human tests strictly high-level concept testing, native Tuchanka fauna likely used later, in development stages. Wise to delay use of varren, powerful bite."

Well, that opened a whole new can of worms but still "How are humans more genetically diverse?"

"Variable, peaks and valleys, mutation, adaptation, far beyond other life." No one knew why, but it was almost as if the other species had all been only a few hundred members in size around a hundred thousand years ago… "Makes humans useful test subjects, larger reactions to smaller stimuli."

"I know we can look much different from each other, but Asari have a wide range of skin tones…" _Yeah, Shepard, you know that well with what Liara shared with you during your time together, huh?_

"Nothing to do with superficial appearance, down to basic genetic code, biotic abilities, intelligence, can look at random Asari or Krogan, make reasonable guess, humans too variable to judge… Outliers in all species, of course, geniuses, idiots, but human probability curves offer more general variety, not to mention humans have been so thoroughly genetically modified that they are more resilient to mutations and change nowadays."

Shepard nodded, it almost made sense from a purely statistical point of view, though he'd be sure to still shoot every single person involved here, or cleanse the area by Strategic Missile. "What can you get about the experiments from the body?"

"Tumours from deliberate mutation of pineal, adrenal glands, modifying hormone levels, attack on glands hit by Genophage, clever."

Shepard frowned at the word choice "You think they're close to a cure?"

"Need more information, conceptually sound though, Genophage alters hormone levels, could repair damage with hormonal counterattack."

"Now we've got more reasons to eliminate this place…" They stood up.

Mordin blinked before looking away from the corpse "Focus on Maelon, too late to help the dead."

They moved down their first set of stairs into the hospital and opened their first door, other than the entrance, of course, and were met by a Clan Weyrloc speaker who was rambling about his clan's grand plans to overrun the Galaxy after curing the Genophage. The plans were absurd, since the Coalition would squash them absolutely flat before they got two planets, and multiple Yolona Oss Launchers bombing their way across a planet was a lot less forgiving than relatively low-yield nukes to cities had been to Tuchanka. At least it said few understood the Coalition's true might.

The speech went roughly like this "When we cure the Genophage, Weyrloc Guld will rule all Krogan! The Krogan Rebellions will become the Krogan Empire! The surviving races will frighten their children with what the Blood Pack did to the Turians!" Shepard thought it more likely he'd amuse his children with tales of Krogan stupidity… when Uncle Wrex is around, of course, since Krogan liked it when you were upfront about things, especially jokes made at their expense. Now if only he could get the image of little blue children out of his head… "The Asari will scream as their Citadel plunges into the sun!" That did it, John Shepard cracked.

"Shut up." Shepard hit the gas pipe beneath the speaker with an armour-piercing GLMG round.

"Hah, look at the human; he cannot even hit a simple target." The clan speaker gloated.

Shepard bared his teeth, flicking the munitions setting to incendiary, it was even better than HE rounds for this, and fired again. The clan speaker screamed as he was set alight before he toppled off the platform he stood on. Shepard gave him a mercy shot to the head before turning his attention to the enemies charging down the ramps toward their level. "Urz, hang back unless they get really close."

_Sure, Shepard…_ The Devouring One answered. Needless to say, he was eventually, toward the end of the skirmish, committed to battle, but that was beside the point…

* * *

"Active console, may contain useful data… one moment… genetic sequences, hormone mutagens still steady, protein chains, live tissue, cloned tissue, very thorough. Standard treatment vectors, avoiding Scorched Earth" Mordin had no clue where that phrase was from, he only knew it to be common to Asari, Quarians, and Batarians. "Immunosuppressants to alter hormone levels, good, hate to see that."

Shepard snorted "Most would not be so casual about developing a sterility plague, Mordin."

The Salarian shook his head "Not developing, modifying, much more difficult, must work within confines of existing Genophage, a hundred times the complexity. Errors unacceptable, could cause total sterility, malignant tumours, could even reduce effectiveness, worse than doing nothing. Had to keep Krogan population stable, one in a thousand, perfect target, optimal growth, like gardening."

_You couldn't have done that by cutting down fertility before the conception stage?_ "You're saying you were working just as hard to keep their population from falling?"

A nod "Yes, could have eradicated Krogan, not difficult, increased mutation to degrade genetic structure further, chose not to. Rachni extinction tragic, didn't want to repeat, all life precious, universe demands diversity."

Shepard's fingers were itching toward Mordin's face right now, though a punch to the helmet would be essentially useless. "Pretty it up however you like, Mordin, but the blood of millions stains your hands… you're a mass murderer, Mordin, so unless I see something that changes my opinion, you won't be welcome in Coalition holdings, other than the Normandy and other assets affiliated with our mission. The STG can't even come to silence you if we decided we wanted to hold a 'crimes against sentience' tribunal."

Mordin held his hands up in a gesture of surrender, his optics wide "No, murdered no one, only altered fertility, prevented fetal nervous system development."

"Huh, I suppose I could gouge your brain out and say I only prevented your nervous system from functioning? That's killing, Mordin!" Tali poked the Seraphim Light Armour's chest plate with an accusing finger before Shepard could intervene.

Mordin glanced nervously at the other team members before continuing "Have killed many, Shepard, many methods, guns, drugs, knives, tech attacks, sometimes with farming implements, but never with medicine."

A derisive snort "Huh…what was it like working on the Genophage?"

"Bet years of my life, wake up with ideas, talk over breakfast, experiments all morning… statistical analysis in afternoon, run new simulations during dinner, set data runs to cook overnight… laughter, ego, argument, passion, galaxy's biggest problem then, massive resources thrown at us, got anything we wanted."

"Do you keep in touch with your former team members?" _And do any of you know that if we really wanted to or had to we could with reasonable ease make the Genophage a pre-conception throttle to save the Krogan so many stillbirths? So much distress? The total live birth rate could still be low, but make it less distressing, make Krogan less liable to fight for revenge…_

"No, all changed with deployment, did test drop on isolated Krogan clan, hit rest of Tuchanka when results were positive. End of project, went separate ways, watching it end, watching birth rates drop… personal, private, not appropriate for team."

_Apparently you scumbags only count live birth rates as birth rates, huh?_ "Sounds like you were pretty important, how'd you go from that to running a clinic on Omega?"

"Wanted to heal people, good use of last decade, something easy no ethical concerns… understand rationale for modified Genophage, right choice, but still hard to sleep some nights."

Shepard crossed his arms over his chest "How can you agree with the Genophage, Mordin? Look what happened to Tuchanka…"

Mordin shook his head quickly "State of Tuchanka not due to Genophage, Nuclear Winter caused by Krogan before Salarians made first contact. Krogan choices, refused truce during Krogan Rebellions, expand after Rachni Wars, splinter after Genophage. Genophage medical, not nuclear, no craters from virus, damage caused by Krogan, not Salarians, not me."

"The effects on Tuchanka are still your responsibility, Mordin! You upgraded the virus that kept them in barbarism!" Shepard snarled, steeping forward, causing Mordin's yellow optics to widen and the scientist to take a step back.

"Krogan committed war crimes, refused to negotiate, Turian defeat not complete, Krogan could have recovered, attacked again. Conventional war too risky, Krogan forces too strong, Genophage was only option. Krogan forced Genophage, it was us or them. Not sorry for winning, wouldn't have minded peaceful solution, but…" he shrugged helplessly.

Shepard snorted again, he seemed to be doing that a lot… "So if the Krogan banded together and formed a united government, you'd welcome that?"

"Yes, united Krogan saved galaxy, destroyed Rachni. Genophage not punishment, simply alters fertility to correct for removal from hostile environment."

"Alright, we're not going to find Maelon standing before consoles, let's move."

"Actually, I'd say his sidekick is probably standing in front of consoles." Jack spoke for the first time in their whole mission's non-combat dialogue.

"You know what I meant…" They crossed over to another room with a body under a cover on the table.

Mordin scanned it before announcing quietly "Dead Krogan, female, tumours indicate experimentation, no restraint marks, volunteer, sterile Weyrloc female willing to risk procedures, hoped for cure, pointless." At Shepard's raised eyebrow, he added "pointless waste of life."

Shepard rolled his eyes "I sure didn't expect you to be disturbed by the sight of a dead Krogan…"

Mordin seemed indignant "What? Why? Because of Genophage work? Irrelevant, no, causative." She poked Shepard in the chest with a dark blue armoured finger "Never experimented on live Krogan, never killed with medicine." He drew back slightly, as if talking more to convince himself now… "Her death not my work, only reaction to it." He looked back toward the dead Krogan "Goal was to stabilize population, never wanted this, can see it logically, but still unnecessary, foolish waste of life, hate to see it."

"I didn't think you'd had much contact with direct contact with things like this, did you come to Tuchanka after dropping your plague?" _And taking away the most important thing, hope, from the Krogan?_

Mordin looked up at Shepard "Yearly recon missions, water, tissue samples, ensure no mistakes…" He looked back to the corpse's tarp "Superiors offered to carry it on. Refused, need to see it in person… Need to look, need to see, the small picture, accept it as necessary, remind myself why I run a clinic on Omega." He glanced at Shepard before raising a hand and gesturing over the corpse "Rest, young mother, find your gods, find someplace better."

* * *

"Seems like Mordin does have a heart after all." Jedore remarked dryly as she, Miranda, Garrus and Jacob watched the holo of the mission progress, waiting for the unlikely call for reinforcements. None of her companions spoke, Jacob because he was cleaning his Gauss LMG, Garrus because he was watching the Salarian intently, and Miranda because she was staring at the corpse of the sterile Krogan, a volunteer to the experiments.

* * *

Grunt looked around the rubble in disgust, Wrex had decided to take a walk and talk to some of the clan members since no one wanted an audience right now "This is the great Krogan homeworld? This is the land of Kredak, Shaigur and Veeoll? This chunk of rock is barely worth standing on! Never thought I'd miss the tank…"

Wrex snorted from up ahead as they walked along a particularly dilapidated hallway, which Wrex began using his suit's minimal engineering capabilities to at least ensure stayed sturdy "Heh, some days it's not really worth standing on, but there is…"

"Always hope. Shepard says it every once in a while."

"He taught you well then." Wrex nodded before walking toward a couple warriors to talk about the latest developments in the camp, most notably the fact that some previously sterile females had begun to give birth to Urdnot children. The clan leader was grinning, it seemed that a female who had been badly injured in the last skirmish with the other clans, a skirmish that had occurred when Wrex was at the females' camp, had surprisingly given birth to a healthy baby girl. He had a very good idea what may have caused it, an overdose of medi-gel allowing this one conception. Wrex had contacted the Coalition when the sterile woman had conceived. They'd informed him that if he had fully ultra-saturated medi-gel stores, which required at least two days for a non-improved medical suite like he had to fully generate, one use to the point of bone-dry depletion could result in the sterile female it was all expended on having a good chance of successful pregnancy if she conceived within the next day or two.

The problem was that Wrex knew perfectly well that the Krogan couldn't afford a population boom without something to bring them all and in the darkness bind them… _Wrex… maybe you read too many old human books on the original Normandy…_ His brain mumbled. Of course, that didn't stop him from dropping by the females' camp once per month or two to help the healthiest of the sterile females stand a chance with their next pregnancy. Believe it or not, Krogan pregnancy was just as much of a hit-or-miss affair as human pregnancies were, so it wasn't a sure chance, but it was better than nothing. Hearing his people speak of children, of the future, of hope instead of vengeance was one of the things that kept him satisfied, knowing he was changing things for the better.

And today, talking with his subordinates, Urdnot Wrex was a very satisfied Krogan.

* * *

Samara raised an eyebrow, well, an eyebrow light anyways "I didn't expect spirituality from you, Mordin."

"Genophage modification project affected millions of lives, then saw results, ego, humility, juxtaposition, frailty of life, size of universe… explored religions after work completed, different races, no answers, many questions."

Jack snorted "Sounds like you were trying to deal with your guilty conscience, the doctor who killed millions…" _He's worse than I am, at least in psychological state…_ The ex-Aeon thought.

"Modified Genophage project great in scope." Mordin spread his three-fingered arms "Scientifically brilliant, ethically difficult, Krogan reaction visceral, tragic. Not guilty, but responsible, trained as doctor, Genophage affects fertility, doesn't kill…" He looked back to the dead Krogan volunteer "Still caused this, hard to see big picture behind pile of corpses."

Shepard's eye was twitching "Can you really just rationalize it all away? How do you justify it?"

Mordin tore his eyes away from the dead Krogan and began to pace "Wheel of life, popular Salarian concept, similar to old human religion of Hinduism in focus on reincarnation. Appealing to see life as endless, fix mistakes in next life, learn, adapt, improve, refuse to believe life ends here, too wasteful, have more to offer, mistakes to fix, cannot end here, could do so much more."

Samara spoke, since Shepard would most likely say something caustic "If you need this much soul-searching to get over it, maybe the Genophage was wrong…"

Mordin shrugged helplessly "Had to be done, Rachni Wars, Krogan Rebellions, all pointed to Krogan aggression." _Yeah, and of course using us to annihilate the Insurrection Movement, then our resisting the Loyalty Program, the Evening War, and the Infinite War all pointed to "Symbiont Aggression", my ass._ Shepard thought angrily as Mordin continued "So many simulations, effects of Krogan population increase, all pointed to war, extinction." _I remember the history classes, all simulations pointed to war and eradication if the Symbionts gained their independence, at least, some of the Earth Empire scientists justified the Loyalty Program as such, and look where we are now?_ "Genophage or genocide, save galaxy from Krogan, save Krogan from galaxy."

_Yeah, and the slogan of the Loyalty Program was "Save Humanity from Symbionts, save Symbionts from Humanity."_ Shepard seethed internally.

Tali could tell at a glance John Shepard was about to explode, James had looked like that before the one time he blew, when she'd taken unnecessary risks on a mission, he'd gone on a rant about how she needed to learn to keep herself safe and alive above all else. He'd shut up when she questioned why he was so concerned "You could have cured the Genophage instead, brought hope to the Krogan, they'd have rejoiced."

"Assumes Quarian reaction, Krogan response to stimuli different. Harsh environment, take chances to fight or flee. Would have caused chaos on Tuchanka, victor would have war economy, bloodthirsty army. Galactic expansion only logical outcome, more war, Genophage saved lives war would have ended."

John Shepard had balled fists and ground his next sentence out through gritted teeth "So you're willing to sterilize a species based on the evidence of a few simulations?"

"Yes. Millions of data points." Mordin held his arms up as if gesturing to the stars above. "Years of arguments, countless scenarios. All noted Krogan fragmentation as dangerous, no unified culture to support repopulation. Would have been war, Turians and probably eventually the Coalition destroying Krogan utterly, Genophage was better, saved lives."

Shepard waved it off derisively "After this mission, you might actually need to apply months beforehand before any trip to Coalition Space, Solus, but at least you owned up, that counts in your favour."

"Not easy, sometimes wish I wasn't as intelligent, choice would have fallen on someone else, not my problem. Fool's wish, had to be me, others might have gotten it wrong… Mordin tore his eyes away from the corpse one last time Ready to go, Shepard."

"Let's go find this Maelon then, figure out what the flying fuck's really been happening around here." Shepard growled "I have no patience whatsoever for your shenanigans right now."

They walked down the hall to find a yellow neutral contact in a room by itself, opening the door revealed… "Hey, you're the Urdnot scout!" Shepard was surprised, why wasn't the guy restrained? "What are you doing here? You should get back to camp! Do you know what they're doing here?"

The sick Krogan looked up, at least, Shepard's biometric sensors indicated he was sick "Trying to help fix the Genophage…"

Shepard dropped to a squat in front of the sick male and took off his helmet "Why are you helping them?"

"I'm not big enough to have a real shot with the females" The male shook his head vigorously "I'll never have kids of my own, but if I helped undo the Genophage, then I mattered!" The guy pounded his fist on his leg plate for emphasis.

Shepard shook his head in near-disbelief "Millions of children will be born, Weyrloc children, they'll destroy the other clans."

"But… no, they said I was helping Urdnot!" Shepard was tempted to facepalm at the stupidity of the statement.

Instead, he snorted "If you want to help Urdnot, you need to get back there, but it would take a real badass to make it back to camp while injured."

"I can do it." The Krogan sounded like he was trying to convince himself.

"You? I said a badass, not some scout whining like a Quarian with a tummy-ache." Shepard snarled in the Krogan's face.

Tali laughed, taking off her helmet to reveal her identity as a Quarian "Hell, even I don't whine that much, some Krogan you are."

"I can do it!" The Sick Krogan stood up "I'm up, and I'm going to the female camp!"

Shepard nodded approvingly "Damn right you are, get back there and show them what you're worth, GO!" The Krogan roared agreement before stalking out of the room. He never noticed that Shepard had discreetly given him a little medi-gel on his way out to repair the tumours the experiments had begun to induce, but later he would wonder how he seemed to heal faster than normal on his way back to camp, and how he felt more energetic than before.

"I almost can't believe that worked." Tali said once she'd sealed her helmet again "I also can't believe I haven't gotten sick or dropped dead yet, my status indicators aren't even changing… odd."

Shepard cringed "Tali, don't scare me like that, James would butcher me if I let you die on me."

* * *

"There's no pep talk like a military pep talk." Garrus commented. Miranda had been unusually quiet after they'd witnessed the dead Krogan, though Jedore and Jacob were currently debating the benefits of GLMGs versus LBRs.

* * *

They ended up being presented with an excellent kill zone in the form of a bridge in the next room, so that initial part was easy, but the next step was much more difficult as the Blood Pack troops there were equipped with Gauss Rifles as opposed to typical Citadel Tech weapons. Jack and Samara were throwing down Shockwaves to keep the Krogan off-balance, Tali was literally trading fire with multiple Blood Pack Flamethrowers and Urz was occupied with wreaking havoc among the Blood Pack Heavies he'd rushed up to and begun to tear apart. Mordin was busily working with his Light Plasma Cannon, which he'd just set up, and Shepard was left to provide covering fire with GLMG and LBR, though his accuracy was slightly reduced by dual-wielding.

It took a while to whittle down the armoured foes, but finally Chief Weyrloc Guld was taken down by Urz pouncing on him from the back while he was trading fire with Shepard, using a C-10 and Gauss Rifle. His momentary imbalance before he started trying to shake the Devouring One off allowed Shepard to get in a killing LBR Overcharge shot. Mordin gunned down another Vorcha before Tali roasted some more Blood Pack varren and the tow biotics walked up to Shepard.

"Well, seems we're done here, let's wait for our OS and Shields to recharge…" They'd used more reckless tactics rather than standard assault tactics, since there wasn't much time… was there?

They strode into the next room a moment later, and Mordin's optics narrowed "Maelon, alive, unharmed." The other Salarian glanced back at the intruders before going back to his work. "No sign of restraint, no evidence of torture, don't understand."

Maelon seemed to finish something before turning around "For such a smart man, Professor, you always had trouble seeing evidence that disagreed with your preconceptions. How long will it take you to admit I'm here because I want to be?"

Jack frowned "Maybe he's brainwashed or drugged?"

Mordin turned his helmeted head to look at her "Unlikely, pupils normal, body language consistent with standard metabolic state."

Maelon crossed his arms "Please, Professor, you wrote a paper on this, Forced behaviour modification always results in mental degradation. Whether from Reaper indoctrination or drugs, subjects always lose higher cognitive function."

Mordin looked to Jack, then to Shepard "Not brainwashed or conditioned, need Maelon at peak capacity for work, must be alternate source of coercion."

Shepard shook his head "The Blood Pack never kidnapped him, he went with them himself, he's doing this of his own volition." Maelon actually nodded at this.

Mordin seemed surprised "Contacts said he was with Blood Pack, assumed… but why? Never argued with necessity of Genophage…"

Maelon was derisive "How was I supposed to disagree with the great Doctor Solus? I was your student! I looked up to you!"

Mordin's optics widened before slitting "Experiments performed here, live subjects!" He was gesticulating wildly by this point "Prisoners, torture, executions, this all your doing?"

Maelon snorted "We've already got the blood of millions on our hands, Doctor. If it takes more to put things right, I can deal with that."

Shepard growled before beginning "You honestly think the experiments you did here are justified?"

Maelon shook his head "We committed cultural genocide, nothing I do will ever be justified. The experiments are monstrous… because I was taught to be a monster."

Shepard raised an eyebrow and looked to the Salarian beside him "Mordin, did you ever pull this sort of shit?"

Mordin shook his head furiously "No! Never taught you this, Maelon."

Maelon huffed "So your hands are clean! What does it matter if the ground is stained with the blood of millions? You taught me the ends justified the means, Professor, I will undo what we did, the only way I know how."

Shepard frowned "What happens if the Genophage is cured and the Krogan expand again? That will be on your head."

"We justified this atrocity by saying the Krogan would cause havoc and war if their population recovered. But look at the galaxy! Batarian attacks in the Traverse regularly beaten back by Coalition strikes that the Council don't appreciate, Geth attacks on the Citadel again beaten back only with Coalition assistance, is this a more peaceful Galaxy, can the Citadel-affiliated races stand on our own?" He looked to Shepard "It's not that I don't appreciate your help, but the attack on Eden Prime might never have been if the Krogan had recovered, we'll never know."

Shepard rolled his eyes "How would a Krogan population explosion done anything to stop the Geth?" Coalition fleets had been too far away to get there in time by non-Quantum FTL, after all, they hadn't fully assimilated Warp drive back then and ME FTL was too slow without a nearby relay. Also, they'd made an agreement with the Council that the planet, being closer to Citadel Space in the Terminus Systems, would be under the protection of the Citadel fleets, it had been effectively a military cooperation project, one that was never attempted again as the Coalition's citizenry went overnight from "let's".

"An increased Krogan population would have forced the Council to take steps, likely involving colony rights in the Traverse. The Turian fleets would have been vigilant for any military activity in the area, they might have stopped the Geth at Eden Prime."

Mordin shook his head "Supposition, impossible to be certain."

Maelon spread his hands as if to make a point "Don't you see? We tried to play god, and we failed! We only made things worse… and I'm going to fix it."

Samara spoke next "You talked about killing, but the Genophage isn't lethal, it only affects fertility rates."

Maelon grunted "Krogan fight over fertile females. They become mercenaries or pirates because they see no alternative! They would be thriving in a cultural renaissance now if we had not decided this was what they deserved!" Despite himself, Sheppard at least partly agreed. _He's right, every race should have at least a chance at rising out of barbarism, a glimmer of hope, the Krogan don't._

Mordin uncrossed his arms and began gesturing toward Maelon with a pointed finger "Inaccurate, Krogan population resulted in war! Simulations were clear!"

Shepard cut him off with a raised hand before turning to Maelon "Why work with Weyrloc? How did you get the Genophage data?"

Maelon shifted from foot to foot "The data was easy, we all still had clearance, we were heroes, and all I had to do was ask. As for Weyrloc, they were the only clan with both the resources and the commitment."

Shepard frowned "Urdnot has a bigger camp than Weyrloc, why not use them?"

Maelon shrugged "Urdnot Wrex is too soft, he wasn't willing to do the experiments I needed. It's Urdnot's loss and Weyrloc's gain, their clan will be first to recover from the crimes we committed."

Shepard looked to his team mate "What do you want to do, Mordin?"

Mordin shook his head slowly, sadly. "We're shutting down this place, no, more than this place…"

Maelon pulled a gun on them "You can't face the truth, can you? Can't admit that your brilliant mind led you to commit an atrocity!"

Mordin charged him, not even letting Maelon get a shot off before using his armour's extreme speed enhancements to smash the other Salarian against the wall where his holographic console was. Then the Salarian pulled his own SMG, switched off the safety and pushed it against Maelon's face in one smooth motion, for any other species, it would be under the chin. "Unacceptable experiments, unacceptable goals, Won't change, no choice, Have to kill you"

Shepard stepped forward "Wait, Mordin, stop, you're not a murderer."

Mordin blinked a couple times before acknowledging "No, not a murderer." He pulled back and holstered his Gauss SMG "thank you, Shepard." He closed his eyes for a moment as Maelon wiped his forehead nervously. Finally, the one-horned Salarian spoke "Finished, Maelon, get out. No Weyrloc left, project over."

Shepard's own LBR was ready though, so he started with "What if he talks to more Krogan, tells the public about the modified Genophage project?"

Mordin quirked his mouth as if smirking "STG good at covering tracks, no trace. Weyrloc willingness to work with Salarian unusual, other Krogan will kill him."

Shepard motioned toward Maelon with his Laser Battle Rifle (LBR-3 to e exact) "Aren't you worried he'll start his research again though?"

The smirk was still on Mordin's optics "No, locking this unit, STG can cut access to old data. Could start from scratch, decades of work though, didn't teach you everything I knew."

"You heard the professor, Maelon, leave before he changes his mind, or I change mine." Shepard motioned toward the exit with his rifle.

Maelon looked back to Mordin "Where am I supposed to go, Professor?"

Mordin blinked and raised his brow "Don't care, try Omega, could always use another clinic."

Maelon nodded "The Krogan didn't deserve what we did to them, Professor, the Genophage needs to end." He walked away.

Mordin looked back to the console Maelon had been working at "Not like this… Apologies, Commander, misunderstood mission parameters, no kidnapping, my mistake, thank you."

Shepard shook his head "Don't worry about me, Mordin, how are you doing?"

Mordin looked upward, still with his back to Shepard "Should have killed him, wanted to, easier than listening. Easier for him too, experiments indicate how far he's fallen, expected it from Krogan, not one of mine…"

"Maybe you're giving the Krogan too little credit, and Salarians too much."

Mordin bowed his head "Possible, sloppy thinking, must correct. Maelon's research only loose end, could destroy it, closure, security, still valuable though…"

Shepard stated his opinion "Keep it, to help the Krogan, so these test subjects wouldn't have died for nothing."

"Logical, but… Maelon's work could cure Genophage. Too many variables, effects on Krogan, effects on Galaxy, too many variables…"

Shepard shrugged "Still, I think we should keep it, give it to Wrex."

"Point taken, Shepard, capturing data, wiping local copy. Still years away from cure, but better than starting from scratch…" There was a moment of silence before "Done, ready to go, ready to be off Tuchanka, Anywhere else, maybe somewhere sunny."

* * *

_Urdnot Camp, Tuchanka, January 21, 3871_

"Urdnot has gained strength, Shepard, thanks to your help, and Grunt here has learned much about Krogan culture and customs or I hope he has… Anyway, we've adopted the remaining members of Weyrloc, mostly females and children." Wrex said "It's worrying though that Coalition Intel didn't tell you about their progress toward a Genophage cure before you stumbled upon it… seems your intel service isn't as great as the STG can be."

"It's probably that we didn't pay as much attention to Tuchanka as the STG does."

"Could be that, anyways, Grunt here needs to undergo the Rite of Passage, he's going through the Krogan version of puberty, so…"

* * *

COALITION MILITARY CODEX: CIVILIAN ARMOURY

The first Civilian Armouries were established immediately after the Battle of Elysium, when Civilians were shown to be able to hold the line in a crisis effectively, merely in need of Marine-standard equipment. The fact that Coalition humans and Seraphim are physically second only to Krogan (note that males have strength on par with Asari and Quarian females while females of both races are stronger) in capabilities was a good contributing factor to this realization.

Ever since the Battle of Mindoir, Marine garrisons had been increased considerably, yet to cover all planets with ACUs or SCUs was simply too impractical, and few actually wanted the Marine life. The solution was simple: The creation of centralized Civilian Armouries instead of the old hand-out Civilian Armour system.

Civilian Armouries are typically manned by between two dozen and two hundred Marines, all trained for command of civilians in battle. The Armouries also pack nanolathes to create more Civilian Armours in times of need. A standard package is Civilian Armour with one Gauss Pistol and one Laser SMG, the result of this much firepower being given to civilians defending their homes (friendly fire attempts result in weapons simply not firing, so no worries there) is the fact that no Coalition planets have been successfully raided, even if there's a Quantum Storm, since the Skyllian Blitz. Of course, Eden Prime had been attacked since then, but the Geth were beaten back with total victories, even some of the husks, the Cybran ones, managed to recover and more or less resume life as before. The Civilian Armouries allowed the people of the settlements on the planet to take up arms and beat back the Geth on the ground while the Coalition's ships chased the Geth from Eden Prime space, the only area which was successfully hit was the excavation site. Civilian Armouries are by now an integral part of Coalition doctrine, specifically Planetary Raid Defence Doctrine and other related doctrines.

END CODEX ENTRY

FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE SEE "COALITION CIVILIAN ARMOUR", "WARD ARMOURIES (CITADEL)", "PLANETRAY RAID DEFENCE DOCTRINE", ETC.

* * *

A/N: I found the talking in Mordin's mission better than the fighting.

Urz is going to have an eventful encounter in the next chapter, a few things will be revealed, and Tali will get a big shock.


	28. Big Game Hunters

A/N: A big bow to Violetlight, author of Walk Without Rhythm, a Starcraft fanfic that I effectively borrowed a concept from, as for what concept, you'll see.

GRAMMAR SLIP! HERE'S THE PHYSICAL STRENGTH & ABILITY HIERARCHY (Note: AFTER the early Quantum Age and the gene modification programs that occurred among humanity, only human-ish or Coalition races included, Krogan for comparison): Krogan Male, Krogan Female, (one medium-sized gap later) Human/Seraphim Female, Asari/Quarian Female/Seraphim Male/ Batarians/Drell/Human Male/Quarian Male/Turians (very close match-up, though males are slightly lower), and so on.

Basically, after the Quantum Age, women are stronger, this happens to be true for Quarians and Batarians as well, Asari are mono-gendered, but barely higher than Quarian women. Reasons will be revealed in good time, and they are reasonable ones, trust me for now.

You know how you can import the heads and bodies of all henchmen and henchwomen in ME 2? And modify the save games so you can have slash romances? Has anyone thought (sorry if I sound sexist but mostly men take the time to do these mod-jobs so I'm only talking women here) to combine those and create a Miranda or Jack mirror Romance (post a video on YouTube if you pull it off)? I'm not even sure I want to think about a Tali mirror, too creepy, you might end up seeing the placeholder face they put for Tali…

Did you know the Spartans had very stupid training programs? Anyone who has to steal food to stay fed will be malnourished and incur likely permanent damage to bone and muscle structure. It's better to start conditioning troops later, when they are fully mature, well-developed and healthy enough to make better soldiers.

* * *

Chapter 28: Big Game Hunters

_Urdnot Camp, Tuchanka, January 21, 3871_

"You go beyond yourself, Gatagog Uvenk!" The shaman growled to the somewhat larger Krogan, though both were, like Grunt, noticeably taller than Shepard.

"How do we know it will challenge him? He's unnatural, the beasts of the Rite could ignore him like a lump of plastic!" Gatagog Uvenk protested.

The Urdnot Shaman rolled his eyes "They know blood, no matter the womb, your barking does not help your cause. The creature that calls itself Urz that hangs around our camp makes more useful noises than you."

_Agreed…_ Urz said mentally, though only Shepard, Samara, Tali and Jack heard it.

Grunt voiced his opinion, with "I'll speak for myself!"

When all four of the human-like people accompanying Grunt glared down at the Devouring One, he held his hands (front feet, technically) up in surrender _I meant he smells Krogan, and his psionic signature's right too, so he sure as hell won't be ignored by any creature looking for food or a threat._

"That's nice to know…" Shepard grumbled while the Shaman and Uvenk stared at Urz in puzzlement.

"What is Urz doing this time?" The shaman asked.

Gatagog Uvenk was similarly surprised "I think I had too much ryncol, first time I saw the critter I thought I saw him writing on a clay tablet to communicate with some Urdnot Krogan…"

_Hey, I resent being called "critter"!_ Shepard chuckled at Urz's mental indignant speech and annoyed hissing at Uvenk, with his huge forearm blades fully flexed out and locked into position, he looked more than ready to fight.

Shepard spoke to defuse the situation "Don't worry, Urz just wants to say that he agrees with the Shaman and that the beasts of the Rite will most certainly NOT ignore Grunt, he smells right and his psychic presence is right too."

The shaman blinked at Shepard before letting out a bark of laughter, his fist pounding the desk next to him about the same time as Urz's jaw did the floor, but the latter was in surprise "it's about time someone could understand him, I almost felt sorry for him with how he's been scribbling on plaques to communicate."

In the meantime, Urz had facepalmed and scribbled in the dirt "Almost?" That brought another round of laughter from all but a very befuddled Gatagog Uvenk.

Shepard finished laughing first "Back to the subject at hand, Urdnot Wrex has given us permission to seek clan status for Grunt."

A raised brow ridge "Permission?" The shaman snorted "That is good enough, if lacking in spirit…"

Uvenk, with his green head plate, seemed annoyed "If this must stand on ritual then I invoke a denial! My Krantt stands against him! He has no one!"

The Shaman rubbed his head plate in irritation "My patience is tested, and you just now declared yourself to have consumed too much ryncol to see straight, but you invoke correctly…" He turned to Shepard's crew "Grunt, who is your Krantt? Your allies willing to fight and die on your behalf?"

Grunt blinked a couple times as Shepard, Tali, Samara and Jack took a unified step forward so Grunt wasn't a salient point in their line anymore "We will stand with Grunt as his shipmates and comrades." Shepard stated, with nods from each of the three women. Surprisingly, there was even an affirmative screech from Urz as the beefed up Zergling bobbed his head vigorously.

The shaman shrugged "Shipmates aren't the same thing, but I grant you aliens your simple interpretation" there was an indignant hiss from around Shepard's waist level, so the Shaman added "no Urz you are not included in the alien category."

"Aliens don't know strength! My followers are true Krogan, everything about Grunt is a lie!" Uvenk protested.

Shepard rolled his eyes "You would go against a Shaman's will and stand in Grunt's way?"

The shaman shook his head "They have not defied me, human, they have angered me, as has this while situation, I remain undecided." He said diplomatically.

Shepard nodded at the diplomatic statement, it was time to go the hard line. He drew himself up to full height, still a foot shorter than Uvenk, and glared with his blood-red helmet optics "Stay in our way, and we'll introduce some fresh air to your brain, what little there is."

"Hah, that's the way to do it, he understands our ways better than some of our own… like a human Shiagur!"

Uvenk opened his mouth again "Shaman! You cannot decide in his favour! What of our traditions if you pollute the Rite?"

The Shaman was obviously angry now "You… you dare! I was a warrior before your mother was born! I speak with the authority of centuries! I decide who is worthy, that is the end of it!"

Uvenk huffed and stomped off "I have other ways of disputing this…"

The Shaman chuckled "You've provoked them, reason enough for me to like you, they're your problem now. Oh, and Urz?" The Devouring One looked up at the Shaman again "Have fun on your adventures with Commander Shepard." The oversized Zergling tilted its head, thinking loud and clear to Shepard and the women present _How'd he know I wanted to tag along?_ The Shaman laughed at Urz's expression before commenting "I've spent enough hours near you, or is it the other way around… to know you liked adventure."

"You're welcome to come along with us, Urz, after we finish Grunt's Rite of Passage." The Devouring One jumped up and down happily at the news and the prospect of adventure.

"So, you want to take a Tomkah or your own ride? It's big enough…" The Shaman gestured toward the general direction where the Restorer was parked.

Shepard thought for a moment "Have you ever taken a ride in a Coalition vehicle?"

The Shaman shook his head "I might be old, but I haven't had a chance to ride one yet, you Coalition people don't typically come to Tuchanka, you know."

"Well then let's move."

* * *

"That was hands down the smoothest ride I've ever had in any sort of vehicle." The Shaman stated as they disembarked near the Keystone where he'd directed them to "Anyway, the console to begin the Rite is at the base of the Keystone, just hit it to begin things, have fun. For the record, Urdnot Wrex says no heavy weapons allowed for Coalition personnel, or this would be FAR too easy…"

Shepard squinted up at the Keystone, the three pylons holding up the central column in a tetrahedral arrangement looked astoundingly familiar, even the name, Keystone, was familiar. It was almost like a half-forgotten memory in the back of his mind was trying to come back to the surface. He could almost swear he had seen that sort of design somewhere before…

* * *

_Ilium, January 21, 3871_

Liara was eating her lunch at her desk when another vision came to her, this one more distinct than the previous ones…

She, the woman who Liara was sure would be herself if she was born human, stood in combat armour in the hostile jungle of this planet, Tuchanka, her people had named it, apparently for no other reason than it sounding like a cool name. She was slowly civilizing some of the primitives living in the forest, and though many of them worshipped her and her subordinates as goddesses, it did not matter, no matter what, she needed to make things happen, she needed to convince at least a few hundred of them to come to safety, to come with her where they would not be engulfed or assimilated… She turned back toward where her ships were to check on progress.

Liara blinked before the woman in her vision could turn far enough to see the ships she wanted to check on, and the image of the distant ancestors of Krogan faded from her mind as well as the woman who looked startlingly like herself, in face and body. She briefly contemplated what Shepard would think of her with alabaster skin and a head of dark brown, wavy hair before shaking off the idea and going back to work. She searched through her memories for one that matched that one, that familiar vision, but she could not find one… Vaguely, Liara T'Soni wondered if she was losing her mind.

* * *

_Keystone, Tuchanka, January 21, 3871_

"This monument has stood for as long as the Krogan have had recorded history, though countless wars and disasters. It has listened, through rock and metal and time. Now, in the Rite of Passage, it shall talk, and you shall listen." The monologue began. "The worthy shall pass, the weak culled…"

"Why do I have a feeling I may have heard that somewhere in the past?" John Shepard wondered for a moment before the first tide of contacts appeared on Tali's sensors, coming from the two sides of the arena furthest from them.

"Right, guys, a lot of inbound small contacts, switch to rapid-fire weapons wherever possible." That meant wielding SMGs along with their usual assault-type weapons (GLMGs, LBRs, and Shotguns) or, in Shepard's case, dual-wielding his assault weapons while vaguely wishing Jedore was here for her Soldier-class capabilities of dual-wielding assault weapons. "Samara, Jack, be ready to use Shockwaves, LOTS of Shockwaves, on my mark. Urz, stay close to us, don't let yourself get surrounded."

He got affirmative lights on his squad panel and a psionic _Yes_, and that was enough as the first of the ocean of varren flooded into view and went down in a hail of armour-piercing Gauss LMG rounds. Once the whole tide of varren was in blast range despite being sprayed by Laser, Gauss, Phasic and Sonic Pulse fire, Shepard shouted "Shockwaves, NOW!"

Varren flew, pin-wheeled, and generally were abruptly rendered airborne as dual shockwaves rippled out into their ranks, then another set at different angles to achieve maximum destruction while buying the squad some breathing room so their automatic weapons could mow down more of the critters. "Too bad the rules don't let me use my flamethrower…" Tali grumbled "Or we'd have a lot of burnt varren meat on our hands."

_That would be unfortunate. Varren meat is good, charcoal, on the other hand, is not._ Urz said, or rather thought aloud, as the Devouring One watched the varren get closer and closer, climbing or leaping over their own dead in almost Zergling-like fashion.

"Urz, I think it's time to move." Shepard said as he shot varren that were starting to get uncomfortably close, both his weapons on full auto, but it wasn't enough.

The Devouring One lunged forward a step, slashing two varren down with his forearm scythes in a single swipe as he thought aloud _Hell, it's about time…_ His adrenal glands kicked in with Sustained Adrenaline Rush as well as his Metabolic Booster upgrade, with the result that he consistently struck and moved fast. Coupled with the fact that he was a Devouring One and had all the carapace and attack evolutions…

The last varren died when Grunt grabbed the lunging creature by the throat and smashed its head repeatedly against a slab of rock. The squad surveyed the carnage before the next wave of contacts appeared, larger and slower, but nonetheless powerful… Klixen, these were the more mature, fire-breathing variety of the critters. "Don't let them get close!" Shepard called.

_I wonder why the Queen of Blades never assimilated that trait into Banelings? Oh, right, they'd probably light each other on fire and start a chain reaction, duh…_ Urz commented, while sitting back on his haunches and watching the Klixen get torn to exploding bits and starting chain reactions. Two waves of Klixen hit them, well, two large ponds worth, it wasn't the ocean of varren, not even close, but it was still one hell of a lot. The last time Urz remembered seeing this sort of swarm tactic, he had been with the Zerg Swarm, the Jormungand Brood to be exact…

The Klixen were soon all cooked off, mostly thanks to the explosive death damaging their compatriots at least a little. That meant that after riddling a whole group with armour-piercing ammo, killing one would often set off them all. The monologue talked about survival for a bit, then silence reigned. Grunt frowned "Is this it?"

The ground began to shake in a way almost reminiscent of approaching Nydus Worms or Canals… Urz's gun-barrel eyes widened at the rhythm of the shaking, the vibrations that brought back memories of an earlier time… a simpler time, a genetic memory all the way from the old Dune Runners of Zz'gash, thousands of years before the evolution of Devouring Ones.

* * *

FLASHBACK (no, this is not Urz, this is a Dune Runner long ago)

_Zz'gash, A long, long time ago._

He ran across the sand, stepping on the ground without apparent rhythm, instinctively coordinating with his mate and the rest of the hunting group to make no rhythm whatsoever in their footfalls, for they knew the prey they now stalked was also very much a predator, and that any rhythmic pounding of the ground would result in an unexpected attack.

They found a good spot, a nearly flat, circular area, and formed a wide circle around the outside of the nest of their prey. He started the rhythmic dance this time, his mate and the rest of the pack following suit. Carapaced feet stomped the ground rhythmically, even when it began to vibrate under their feet with the impending emergence of their prey.

A towering worm-like armoured creature erupted from the earth, swinging about and smashing its mouth down toward some of the pack members, who deftly dove out of the way while those on the other side of the circle rushed in for the attack, lunging and using their back claws to anchor onto the rough surface of the creature's natural armour while their arm blades searched for weak points. Where they found them, they gouged deeply into the worm's flesh. The creature roared in pain and thrashed about violently, trying to dislodge them, but that was why the back claws existed, to hang on and leave the hands free. It stopped to summon up an acid attack and those of the pack distracting it on the ground scattered pre-emptively, so that it go no one. While it was summoning up its attack, he had already managed to cut a long wedge of the creature's meat and looked over to his pack members, who nodded readiness before they as one jumped off the creature, clutching the meat in the clawed arms on their backs and scrabbling away from the creature, dodging its acid strikes as they ran back toward the solid rock warrens that were their home. The creature eventually gave up and laid down along the sparse grass, unfurling many extra leaf-like appendages to photosynthesize and make up for the nutrients it had just lost, the wounds were already healing, they were effectively mere paper cuts to the massive creature. After all, it had only withdrawn below ground at the approaching vibrations, preparing for an ambush of live prey, instead, it had been ambushed.

The ones left to guard the nest welcomed the hunters with their own foraged nuts and vegetation, as the hunters dropped off the meat that was for the foragers and the young before going down to drink from the river in the area. He watches the children play-fight, frolic, hit stones together to make sparks and practice other life skills with a sense of pride while wondering what he should write on his clay tablet, what could be left to be left to be read by prosperity…

One of the tinkerers of the tribe had just announced he had devised a more efficient plough than using their natural scythe arms, so he recorded that for lack of better things to scribble down on the wet clay tablet… His mate was calling now, apparently the newest egg she'd laid had begun to show signs of hatching, and she wanted him to be there…

END FLASHBACK

* * *

_Keystone, Tuchanka, January 21, 3871_

Urz looked up at the towering worm-like armoured creature, remembering from genetic memory that this was the ultimate predator in so many ways, but something that could still be hunted. He snapped out of his stupor just in time to dive out of the way of a glob of acid, much as his distant ancestors had before a number of them were assimilated by the Zerg Swarm and the rest were left alone to slowly work their way toward civilization. He knew that the ancient harvesting ways could not work, they were to inflict paper cuts, negligible damage, to get meat, not to kill… but he COULD do something… _I'll distract it, it knows my kind…_ He called. Zerglings and Devouring Ones were almost unchanged from Dune Runners after all. _You guys take as many shots as you can at it!_ He yelled as he ran off toward the Thresher Maw, interrupting Shepard's mumblings about Thresher Maws.

"Urz must be crazy…" Shepard mumbled as he fired a steady stream of armour-piercing ammo and sniper mode LBR shots toward the giant armoured worm.

_Yeah, I thought that when I first transited through the assimilated version of these things, Nydus Worms, sure, the more durable Nydus Canals we used later were less creepy, but walking into the mouth of the creature that was both predator and prey to you is kinda mad…_ Urz called back as he dodged another body-smash by the Maw just before it began firing at Shepard's crew with its acid. Sure, they went back to using Nydus Worms but with a Nydus Network to make things both more economical and more flexible than the one-start one-end Nydus Canals, but that was another matter, after he left the Swarm.

Coalition Marine Armour was very good against chemical attacks, but the high temperatures produced by the acid reacting with air would be enough to slowly burn away the iridium weave layer by layer if they kept on getting hit when Shields and Fields were down. Hence, everyone was trying to not get hit, though Jack still splattered an acid blob with her personal shields almost effortlessly. Thresher acid was simply too slow to activate over-shields but it was enough to activate the personal shields. The biotics switched to throwing Warps at the slightly distracted creature while everyone else simply fired endless streams of weapons fire toward the creature.

The Thresher roared in irritation and went back underground, moving, as the Omni Sensors reported, toward them under the ground. It entered the arena proper and the squad scattered, taking better pieces of cover against it. Urz mentally called _Sorry guys, I'm not as distracting as a whole pack of us ex-Dune Runners._

"It's fine, Urz, you've done enough to help, stay out of the line of fire though, Thresher acid is more dangerous for you than it is for us." That was Shepard, an affirmative screech answered him just before the precursor species of the Nydus Worm erupted from the ground again and used the same sort of strategy his kind used on Akuze. It erupted almost under Samara's cover and managed to send the Asari flying despite her dodging the main impact, though she was back on her feet seconds later thanks to her own and her armour's capabilities.

They kept shooting and dodging attacks, and despite Shepard and crew having several close calls, the fight eventually ended. The Thresher Maw had spat a bit too much acid at them for Shepard' temper to handle, and the result, the insane result, was him charging the creature with only his LBR out, screaming "I AM CYBRAN!"

The Thresher Maw actually froze and gaped in shock for a second before it spat acid at the man running at it. Shepard made his way onto a large, sturdy crate with one step and then stomped onto a low wall before making a leap toward the creature, its acid flying by beneath him as he flew through the air in what was almost slow-motion. The time dilation effect was termed "Overclocking" by most Cybrans. The Aeon and Seraphim had something similar with psionics, though that was more of a pre-emptive sense of what the enemy would do. The UEF side, well, they had better psi-shielding, and better protection to compensate for the Overclocking effect of Cybrans being able to get in more accurate shots. Hence Coalition troops were more or less balanced.

His LBR, already in Sniper Mode, came up as he neared the peak height of his leap and pointed at one of the many bulbous eyes of the Thresher Maw before he hit the Overcharge switch hard and reached back with his right hand to his grenade bandolier. The weapon's side capacitor panels began to glow as they built up energy to dump into the main optic tunnel i.e. barrel and magnetic refractors began to spool up, the energy within the weapon's barrel bouncing between the containment circuits inside until they finished charging up and discharged the huge amount of energy in under a twentieth of a second.

The Overcharged laser beam smashed into and through one eyes of the Thresher and scorched its way through the creature's head, boiling off tissues until it cooked off and shattered an internal bone, basically turning it into a fragmentation grenade. The Thresher roared in pain, which was enough of an opening for Shepard to chuck a Sonance Grenade through as he descended i.e. fell toward the ground.

The huge worm's head exploded, and Shepard hit the ground softly, stopping his Overclocking before he could get a headache from it. The Thresher swayed for a moment before abruptly casting a shadow over Shepard, a very large, very heavy shadow that resulted in a nearly comical glance up and blank expression of shock before the Marine dove out of the way barely in time.

Jack spoke first "Shepard, I think you need a picture frame… assuming you want to frame your certificate of insanity like I did." Said certificate was currently hanging in her quarters.

Grunt chuckled while Tali whistled "You know, Shepard, me cracking my visor seal here might have been crazy, but in many ways you are even more insane… you got any idea why my biometrics sensors are still reading 'healthy'?"

Shepard blinked and nearly tripped over his own feet "That was random."

* * *

"You know, now that the Rite is over, we are OK to use heavy weapons…" Samara said rather slowly as if to a moron. It also happened to be the speed at which the Gatagog Krogan, who were, coincidentally, morons, were moving, now that she was repeatedly hitting them with her Temporal Fizz Launcher. She'd switched it to purely temporal dilation rounds as opposed to standard Fizzes, hence they weren't being thrown around… yet.

Shepard grinned "Yeah, let's do it." He yanked his Infantry Nanodart Launcher off his back and extended the weapon in one smooth motion before locking on and firing off the Nanodart usually stored within the launcher when it was at rest. His armour was feeding energy to it to lathe the second missile before the first got there and tore all the Krogan to bits. After all, four hundred kilograms of TNT equivalent was nothing to scoff at, even by Krogan standards.

"Aw come on… that was too easy." Grunt complained.

"Grunt, sometimes after killing a huge-ass worm without using your heavy weapons, you gotta be lazy for a bit…" Shepard stated.

_Agreed, still remember sleeping off some of the excess after returning from a Nydus Worm Hunt on some random Koprulu Sector planet back when they were just coming back into use again, helping out the Raiders._ Urz stated, the four human-like members of the squad agreed, Grunt, on the other hand, was confused until Samara translated for him, getting a chuckle out of him before Urz produced a large piece of Thresher meat from one of his carapace pockets (benefit of being a Devouring One) and bit in. _Hey, this tastes as good as my genetic memory said, and even better than Nydus Worm, want some?_ He looked up at Shepard questioningly and held out a slice of the meat.

Shepard raised an eyebrow as they kept walking toward the Restorer and Urz kept eating his dinner "Uh, I'm not sure if raw Thresher meat is good for humans, or Krogan for that matter, you can have it."

Urz shrugged _Suit yourself, been a long time since I had any worm meat of any kind anyways… DON'T SAY MAGGOTS!_ They all laughed at that.

* * *

"A human killed the Thresher maw on foot? That hasn't been done since Urdnot Wrex did the Rite with his Krantt…" One Krogan commented as they walked by toward the ritual grounds where clan status was typically granted, the Shaman leading them.

Once they got there, the shaman started the traditional monologue "You have passed the Rite of Passage, earning the honour of clan and name. Many survive, but it has been centuries since a thresher maw fell! Your names will live in glory." Grunt knelt as tradition dictated. "Grunt, you are Urdnot, you may now own property, join the army, and apply to serve under a Battlemaster."

"Shepard is my Battlemaster, he has no match." Grunt stated simply.

"Understood, congratulations, Urdnot Grunt, accept this invitation to the Thresher Feast we will be holding tonight, its meat is among the finest products of Tuchanka, though rare." Grunt nodded assent.

"Damn, if I'd know Thresher meat was edible, I would have collected from the Thresher Maw kills we got on the Saren-hunt…" Shepard said to Tali, who shrugged in response. "We should go."

The Shaman nodded "May your enemies be strong enough to keep you sharp, though according to Wrex that's difficult with your tech level…"

Shepard shrugged "Well, have fun, I'll see you at the Feast, if I'm invited, that is."

"Of course! You are his Krantt after all, your whole crew is invited."

Shepard grinned "Great, see you later!" They walked off.

"I barely survived the Maw during my Rite, guess that human's got a quad." Someone said as they passed them on their way back to talk to Wrex.

* * *

"Well, well, Shepard, I'm guessing you charged it and shoved a grenade down its mouth. Am I right?" Wrex grinned smugly at Shepard's shocked expression. "No, I wasn't watching your combat footage, I did it myself that way."

Shepard let out a slow "Oh…" of understanding.

"It's pretty much the only way to kill a Thresher Maw on foot without using extreme heavy weapons." Wrex was still grinning.

Shepard rolled his eyes "Right, so that was why the rules forbade use of our heavy weapons."

* * *

_Tuchanka, January 21, 3871_

"This… is the epitome of red meat." Shepard stated, it wasn't that surprising, as Thresher Maws extracted minerals from consumed gravel, and that often contained iron, hence the redness. It wasn't bad, but Shepard knew that with a few spices it could be much better. It was like the old forms of puffer fish, the partly poisoned ones, in that it had to be prepared well. In this case, that meant cooked thoroughly, as long as you were not a Zerg, since it contained so many toxins and hazardous proteins that anything short of well-cooked meant you had a chance of dying (Zerg not included). "Urz, do you think it's better cooked or raw?"

_Well if the Swarm had given us flints or other sparking stones we would have been making fires. The raw meat's not bad but it's so much better tasting, easy to chew and nutritious when it's cooked._ The Devouring One thought aloud from where he was cutting a piece of Thresher steak with his left arm scythe and stabbing them on his right hand finger claws to feed himself like a knife and fork, unlike most, he sat at a table (suffice it to say the Dune Runners knew how to eat without making a mess). Somehow, Urz had even managed to get himself some Krogan equivalent of an apron and hung it around his neck, managing to look absolutely ridiculous in the process.

Miranda smirked at Shepard from where she was sitting, across the clearing from him, it was quite different from the death-glares of jealousy she'd been sending his way before, it wasn't like there had been anything weird going on, not really. At least, not by some people's standards, though Shepard feared for his life right now. Miranda decided that to find it funny was better than to be jealous, and oh was it funny… She frowned, damn, that sounded like she was drunk, she probably was, to not be as competitive as usual this time.

Jack had lost a drinking competition with Grunt moments before the Krogan himself passed out, and while Grunt was flat on his back on the rubble-strewn floor Jack had chosen a more comfortable place, sitting next to Shepard's legs and head lolled onto his thigh. It was not a comfortable position for Shepard, yet he knew how bad a mix alcohol and high-powered biotics could be. Liara had, once in a drunken stupor, pinned him to the ceiling with her biotics before falling asleep on the bed below when he tried to wake her from her near-sleep state to coax her into taking a shower to sober up a bit first. She didn't let him down until after she woke up the next morning, it was a good thing he hadn't drunk too much liquid that night… Though he had learned not to wake up powerful, sleeping/sleepy biotics no matter how uncomfortable he was.

Kelly was talking with Tali, the party had died down slightly (no more wrestling) and she had her head leaning on Shepard's shoulder, sitting back-to-back with him on the crate. Shepard's impression was that she was quite warm in the slightly cool evening air, and the warmth was nice if you weren't wearing your armour. Jedore had also gotten a bit drunk (understatement) and had her arms wrapped around Shepard's chest and was mumbling something drunken on his shoulder.

Samara was the only one other than Miranda not completely pissed, and right now she was excitedly babbling and gesticulating … okay, maybe Jedore had managed to last long enough to get the normally stoic Asari inebriated with ryncol… toward the holo-screen where Shepard was showing Wrex a video of Terrans in the Koprulu Sector battling Zerg. Urz was being a prime specimen of said race during the video, demonstrating his kind's claws and teeth on some scrap metal. Anyways, Samara was half-draped over his other shoulder, on the Jack side of him.

In simpler terms, Shepard was physically surrounded by four beauties with a fifth glaring from where she'd sat across the clearing at his current state. He guessed the only reason she wasn't also all over him was because she didn't drink any ryncol, good, he was in enough trouble as is, being forced to grin nervously like an idiot. In reality all he wanted to do was figure out how to worm his way out of this situation, maybe gently push Samara away, then get Jedore to budge over so he could turn back around and figure out a way to get up without resulting in Kelly banging her head and then drunkenly butchering him. Also, there was the sleeping time bomb propped up against his leg. He could feel himself beginning to sweat bullets and had to fight to not shake in his boots at his current predicament.

The worst thing was that he couldn't even get himself away form the situation. Jedore was hugging one of his arms to one of her soft, firm and incredibly warm breasts, his other arm was jammed between Samara's cleavage, Kelly was holding onto his hands and Jack was holding his legs in a death-grip while muttering something. He hoped it wasn't a nightmare where she'd lash out with her biotics and rip his legs and half his body off, Tali might not get a dampening field up in time for there to be anything left of him to bury if the four women had a drunken half-asleep catfight. Urz wasn't helping, his mouth being filled with his own fists now that he'd finished eating and muffled squeals of screechy laughter leaking out once in a while. The only good thing was that Shepard was still on hormone suppressors so no one had any risk of successfully raping him unless they used a strap-on… that was a disturbing thought.

Miranda finally lost it as she watched sweat run down Shepard's forehead as the Justicar finally succumbed to her drink and slumped onto Shepard's shoulder. The "Perfect Woman" clapped a hand to her mouth as she laughed at the absurdity of the situation and the sudden indignation on Shepard's face at the fact that she was laughing at his predicament. Tali, watching Shepard's back, well, more Kelly's front now, was also hiding a smile behind her visor at the absurdity of the situation. The men of the Normandy over near the other end of the party area were either passed out or howling in laughter at Shepard's look of abject horror at being used as a leaning-post by so many of "The finest specimens of female-kind" (Mordin).

* * *

_CSC Normandy, January 22, 3871_

Shepard was still nursing a hangover from last night's party—Fully cooked slabs of Thresher meat, ryncol, singing, music, wrestling and conversation all rolled into one package—when the eternally cheery and bubbly Yeoman Kelly Chambers caught up with him with a "you have new messages in your private inbox, Commander."

Shepard winced at the sudden noise and the fact that he'd jumped slightly, causing pain to shoot up his crotch—he'd woken up to find his balls a shade of blue that he quickly decided looked better on Liara than himself—before turning on his chest projector and bringing up the e-mails. He grunted thanks to Kelly before starting to read, the first e-mail read:

_From: Urdnot Darg_

Dear Human,

The clan leader told me how to get in touch with you and exactly how much you fixed. I don't remember much of what happened, but the chief scout said you pulled my quad out of the fire when I got caught and poisoned over at the Weyrloc camp. Thanks. Next time I have a chance to kill a human, I won't, unless I go into blood rage or something…

I got to go to the female camp after I recovered, and it was pretty good. I was actually thinking of joining the Blood Pack before this happened. I think I'm going to stay here instead.

Urdnot Darg, Scout, Second Class

Shepard nodded to himself "Well well, nice to see the guy made it back. Next… Shaman Urdnot?" He raised an eyebrow before clicking on the relevant e-mail.

_Damn it, I hate these things. But you need to hear this._

You're part of Grunt's Krantt, and you're his leader. So keep him alive. Here, I have to stay polite, play the role. But our people are dying. Krogan have always valued survival over tradition. If we're going to survive as a people, we need your vat-grown Grunt. Okeer was a madman, but he was a madman with a plan, and that's more than most have on this ball of rock.

So bring him back from your damn mission. My people need him. And if you all get killed, I'll piss on your graves.

Shaman Urdnot

Shepard chuckled before he continued hobbling toward med-bay, hoping the diagnosis wouldn't be as bad as it had been back when Ash had kicked his balls hard enough to permanently damage them. The doctors then had declared removal and replacement necessary if he ever wanted to have children, as an pre-teen who'd just learned how bad testicular trauma could be, he'd been too scared to let them cut his balls off, even if it was to replace them. As he passed by, he noted that Joker, with the new implants, didn't hobble as much as he did, amazing…

* * *

_Med Bay, CSC Normandy, January 22, 3871_

Chakwas frowned at the readouts "Shepard, you need to stop taking those hormone suppressants, also, strongly advise getting some relief, preferably from your hand, within the next few days, or this condition may return."

The young Marine frowned "What was wrong with the hormone suppressants?"

"Shepard, you're a young male, and since during puberty your brain didn't receive quite enough hormones to end up giving you wet dreams according to what this here says, you will require some form of release at least every month or so after you've had your repairs. It's just not healthy for a young alpha male, and yes, Miranda's modifications mean you're a total Alpha Male just like your mother is an Alpha Female in her age group, to be pent up for so long." Chakwas sighed and sat down "I know you're still hoping that Liara will someday come back to you, but in the interim you'll need to handle this yourself…" She gained a mischievous grin "I could ask Mordin to send you some educational videos…"

Shepard shook his head vigorously "Thanks, Doc Chakwas, but no thanks."

The Aeon woman shrugged "Well, that's your choice, just make sure you stop taking the hormone suppressants!" The Commander fled after that, and Tali came in, wringing her hands. "Is something wrong Tali?" The "old" (her silvery hair was a genetic thing, not age) Doctor asked in concern.

"No, not really, it's more the lack of something being wrong… I opened my visor on Tuchanka, TUCHANKA of all places… and I'm still not on my deathbed yet…" Tali shifted from foot to foot, testing if she was dizzy yet.

Chakwas nodded "Ah… well, biometrics scans say you're perfectly healthy and that the bacterial colonies in your body are under control. You'll be fine, Tali."

"I just want to know why… why is this happening? Why am I not half-dead from an infection like any other Quarian would be?"

"I think…" Chakwas tapped a few buttons on her holo-console to check "Ah yes, that explains it… As long as the armour does not diagnose you with an actual immune-deficient disease, it will nullify all the air and water filters contained inside other than its own systems. In other words, as long as you have your armour on, that suit of yours underneath is merely an inactive failsafe."

"That's… impossible!" Tali seemed horrified, and rightly so, if the Coalition could disable the Quarian enviro-suits, and the technology got out, her people would have a huge sword hanging over their heads…

"It's possible, Tali, it's not like the armour assimilates the suit, it just supplements it and allows minute doses of bacteria in at once, its internal programs keep the bacteria from multiplying too quickly for you to handle. This is why even originally sickly and immune-deficient people will become tough as nails after about a year of wearing the armour. Your body can now fight off minor things such as a few airborne bacteria with ease, however, I'd still not recommend exposure to, say, polluted environments… Tuchanka's so dry most of the bacteria are spores, and those take a while to germinate, enough time for your macrophages to gobble them up, hence you're not sick."

Tali's body language meant she was likely gaping under her visor "…Wow, never quite realized…"

"Your room does it too, every once in a while it exposes you to one or two bacteria, sometimes weakened already, and lets you acquire immunity to it. Quarian immune systems are almost exactly like humans except slower to react, and the hunter-killer cells respond slower. The negligible exposure doses you were subject to throughout your time of nearly living in that armour have hardened you to enough strains of bacteria that most will not affect you worse than they would a human. Anything that gets out of control can be curb-stomped by the medi-gel dispensers of your armour."

"You mean I could walk around the ship without my suit and I'd probably be fine?" Tali asked incredulously.

Chakwas shook her head, smiling "Oh, I didn't say that… merely that suit breaches aren't usually life-threatening even without medi-gel anymore, unless we're talking bioweapon rounds, duh."

"Huh, interesting, so… nothing's wrong with me?"

The doctor shook her head "Nope." She emphasized the "puh" sound.

Tali nodded gratefully "Thanks Doc, I'll see you around if you don't need me for anything here…"

* * *

_Tech Lab, CSC Normandy, January 22, 3871_

"Still hard to believe Maelon betrayed me, betrayed my work." Mordin shook his head "Disgusted by his actions, proud of his nerve though, always thought he lacked backbone. Hope he finds something new, better goal, better purpose, fewer torture tests."

Shepard raised an eyebrow "You really at peace with what happened?"

"Of course, can't change what happened, life continues, back to mission, back to work, become like Maelon otherwise. Salarian emotional processing faster than other species, has to be, short-lived, can't spend time reminiscing."

"You really don't feel bad at all about what happened on Tuchanka?"

"Yes, now, was greatly distressed then. Stages of grief, loss, anger, rationalization. Dealt with it, most on Tuchanka, some on Restorer back to Normandy."

"Huh, Maelon didn't seem like he'd processed his immune response, he was obsessed with the Genophage."

"True, didn't mean to imply Salarians were healthier emotionally, can still make wrong choices, bad decision from grief, anger, guilt. Maelon couldn't accept feelings, executed his plans, probably before I left for Omega, wish I'd seem it. Salarians still feel, but resolve quickly, explains lack of marriage, can't sustain courtship emotions, or perhaps based on reproduction, unsure."

"Huh, well, talk later, Mordin, have fun."

* * *

A/N: **Normandy's Land Vehicle Reveal** in two Chapters (i.e. in Chapter 30).

PLEASE **READ THE LIST, THINK ABOUT IT (Maybe research) AND FOR GOD'S SAKE DO NOT** PUT YOUR GUESS IN A REVIEW **UNTIL NEXT** CHAPTER! (One chapter before the reveal)

Candidates are as follows:

Tier 2: Wagner T2 Amphibious (Submersible) Tank (Cybran), Riptide T2 Amphibious (Hover) Tank (UEF), Blaze T2 Assault (Hover) Tank (Aeon), Ilshavoh T2 Assault Bot (Seraphim).

Tier 3: Titan T3 Siege Assault Bot (UEF), Loyalist T3 Siege Assault Bot (Cybran), Harbinger T3 Heavy Armour (4-legged walker, Aeon), Othuum T3 Heavy Armour (Tank, Seraphim)

Note: Ilshavohs are slower than the other three T2 choices, and cannot traverse abyssal depths unlike the Wagner (though it is slightly slower underwater than on land). Othuums are slower than Harbingers, which are slower than Titans and Loyalists (those two are tied for speed). All the T3 units are able to handle abyssal depths without trouble, though all are slightly slowed underwater.


	29. Return to Troy

A/N: Minor changes to canon here, and some foreshadowing…

True, Spartans were hard to beat man for man, but then again Protoss are hard to kill, and the Zerg Swarm stampeded over them, why? Numbers and good tactics (on occasion, not like the stupid Persians at Thermopylae).

* * *

Chapter 29: Return to Troy

_Ilium, January 23, 3871_

"Remind me why we're coming back here again?" Garrus asked.

Shepard shrugged as the Restorer descended toward the city of Nos Astra, flying in over the sea the city bordered "In every main planet we've gone to, there's a whole shitload of non-critical assignments we can do, you're the one always saying this feels like an RPG, so, we're back here, to check for" he put up air quotes "Side Quests."

There was a long silence "You want to talk to Liara again, don't you?" Tali asked, peering at him with her green helmet optics, looking at his red ones.

Shepard didn't turn from where he was controlling the Normandy's path, but he sighed "No." He still sounded to Tali like he was trying to convince himself.

Garrus nearly choked on the water he'd been drinking from the straw inside his helmet "No? But… but…" he dissolved into a coughing fit.

* * *

Liara T'Soni looked out at the trading floor, she wasn't sure why she was looking, but she had just suddenly had the urge to take a break from her holo-console and look out at the cityscape. As usual, she was wearing her Aeon Medium Armour, but she didn't have the helmet on, her shields would keep her head safe anyways.

* * *

"It's complicated, alright? I'm sorry I don't have the heart to go face her again after she used Cryo Blast on it the last couple times…" Shepard brought the Restorer into position to navigate over the balcony containing the trading floor just after he activated the passive camouflage system, rendering the Restorer a mostly see-through spectre, then he decided that was not enough as he engaged active camouflage next, making the Restorer effectively transparent to the naked eye. Usually, units ran with active camo, hence why "sight" ranges of actual units were so short but wrecks could be seen clear across an op area. He brought the Restorer into position and the crew entered the airlock. It cycled.

* * *

Liara's console beeped with another incoming message, and she turned back to it, she'd wasted enough time, she should get back to work now, it wouldn't do to be so distracted so early in the day. She turned back to the console and looked at her helmet, which was resting on the table, for a moment, thinking of how she and Shepard had worked together so well on their Saren-hunt before tearing her eyes back to her console. She never noticed the internal holographic environment monitoring system showing an enhanced image render of the Restorer outside her window. Nor did she see the crew jumping to the ground just before the T3 AA Gunship flew off.

* * *

The crew stepped out of the Restorer and dropped down onto the trading floor, de-cloaking after landing so as to not start some sort of mass panic by making people think they were airborne troopers. Shepard looked around, using his HUD's scanning systems to check for previously encountered individuals before zeroing in on someone he hadn't expected to see again. Gianna Parasini was sitting at a table on the trading floor.

"Hello, Gianna, what are you doing on Ilium?"

"Oh, this and that, some business as usual, Lorik's the boss on Noveria now, did you know that?" Shepard shook his head, and Gianna stood up "I remember saying before I owed you a drink, well, here it is." She gestured toward the beer bottle.

"Thanks, I guess…" Shepard decided to scan it first, just in case, before picking it up, he raised an eyebrow at the note underneath. He muted external speakers "Gianna's here to investigate an Asari, Hermia, for smuggling schematics from Noveria… she wants help… Garrus, there is no need to say 'I told you so', alright?"

The Turian faked bafflement "What? I merely noted that Coalition Marine training encourages treating life a bit like an RPG with one life, i.e. looting everything you find, going on side quests when not on main missions and…" He gestured for a bit until he realized he'd accidentally shutoff his external speakers.

"Never mind, Garrus, let's just move…"

* * *

"Got you, Hermia, you're in for it this time, have fun paying the fine…" Gianna grinned rather sadistically.

"Parasini? What are you doing here?" The Asari was noticeably frightened. "I need to see my lawyer…" She ran off, and Gianna just watched her go.

"Already have the documents in order, I love nailing Asari. So ageless and superior, then you get them, and they squeal like schoolgirls."

_Yeah, Liara sure did squeal like a schoolgirl while back when you were nailing her_ sweet spot _repeatedly…_ Shepard's traitorous mind hissed before he could slam it down, life was just plain difficult without his hormone suppressors and with his new, fully functional parts. His brain's internal conflict screeched to a halt when she kissed him on the cheek, both sides of the conflict gaping before saying in unison _This is what you get for not wearing your helmet, ugh, get that lipstick off our face, quickly!_

"Much better than an autograph." Parasini stated before walking off, ignoring the glares directed at her back by Jack, Miranda and Jedore. As soon as she was out of sight, Shepard began frantically trying to wipe off the lipstick on his face.

_If you're really trying to rip your face off, or skin your cheek, I could help, though I hope you have medi-gel in your medi-gel storage._ Urz broadcasted in a deadpan tone from where he was watching the proceedings inside his new and custom armour, which was light but still gave him greatly improved physical durability plus shields. Everyone laughed at that comment, even Urz himself, before they walked on.

* * *

"Garrus… I do believe one of us said at some point something along the lines of 'What's next, Krogan reciting poetry?' while on our Saren-hunt…"

"Yeah…" The Turian was too shocked to say much else.

"Maybe we should help, get some 'experience points' out of it." Tali remarked with a wide grin on her helmet lights.

"Maybe…" Shepard said slowly. "Garrus, I guess you were right, life is like a video game… and it's almost like I'm playing the main character… let's get moving."

"I think we should go get him a certificate for insanity too." Jack whispered to Jedore, who nodded mutely.

* * *

Shepard's ears were nearly bleeding with the bad love poems by the time he finished listening and approached the Asari, taking off his helmet so he wouldn't seem too menacing, though the jagged-looking (they had sort-of rounded corners, mostly) plates of his armour and bright red circuits couldn't be helped "What do you want?" The Asari looked taken aback with herself and wiped her forehead "Sorry. That damned Krogan's love poems are getting on my nerves."

"Is the Krogan bothering you?" Shepard made a show of inspecting his LBR for any needed repairs, scuff marks didn't count, they showed a weapon's been used, before he put it back in its slot.

The Asari's dark blue eyes widened and she held her hands up in a placating gesture "No, no, you don't need to hurt him or anything," She looked toward the Krogan in question "he's harmless, which… I know, Krogan, hard to believe… His name is Charr, we're kind of dating, but… we're on a break." _Hmm… didn't realize Asari did the "Take break" thing too…_ Shepard noted "And he's trying to show me how sensitive he is by, well, wooing me, it's really bad…"

Shepard crossed his arms in front of his chest plate "Doesn't seem common for Asari to date Krogan, what brought you tow together?"

The Asari smiled a bit "He's a fun guy, really smart, especially for a Krogan, and he's got a stable job as a transport technician… It's fun to join a mercenary guild or dance at bars for a few centuries, but eventually you hit the matron stage, you know?" Cybrans get enough experience from the Cybran Network to mostly avoid such things, those who do end up there upload their experiences and get pitied for the stupidity "Then you get your back tattoo removed, let your scalp go back to its natural colour, and settle down with someone dependable."

Shepard frowned, that didn't seem so bad to date… "Why are you on a break?"

"He's serious, serious as in talking about kids… Charr is a great guy to date and all, but for something permanent?" She glanced at Charr before looking back to Shepard "Krogan live long lives, it's not like dating any other race, where you just stick it out for a couple centuries until they die… uh, no offence intended… It made me wonder if he really likes me, or if he just wants kids, he can't have them any other way, you know, because of the Genophage."

"Sounds like a question you should ask him." It seemed this Asari only really needed someone to spew to, oh well, good to see others had relationship issues too.

"I did, I don't think he realized our kids would always have been Asari. Non-Asari don't always get that we're not taking alien DNA, we're just using some of it to incorporate a few favourable genes. Anyway, Charr was quiet for a long time, then he said he'd love our girls no matter what colour they were."

"You need to talk to your boyfriend, he's just going to keep spouting poetry" _And harming the hearing of innocents passing by…_ "until you do."

The Asari turned her back to the Krogan and presented her side to Shepard "I know, but it's tough! I like him a lot, hell, I love him! But I don't know if he's permanent bond material."

Shepard snorted "Look at him, he's obviously crazy for you." _You just need to persuade him not to be so vicious-sounding in his love poems…_

"Is he? I mean, what if he just wants to have kids? Am I just his baby-making machine? He said I wasn't, but…"

Shepard facepalmed "If he said that, you either trust him and have nothing to worry about or you don't and you've already decided."

The Asari ran a hand through her head crest "I guess I hadn't thought of it like that… and I do trust him, if he said it… I'm going to talk to him. Here, I've given you a discount at the terminal, thanks for the help." She tapped some things on her Omni-tool.

Shepard nodded, then gave some more advice "One last thing before you go, please tell him to stop sounding vicious in his love poems, it doesn't fit."

She blinked "Uh, alright then, thanks." The Asari nodded before scooting off.

* * *

_Ilium, January 23, 3871_

"I'll go all the way without a second thought! I learned how to shove a gun in people's faces from… Commander Shepard?" The Asari bartender he was talking to seemed thoroughly bored with the whole business.

"Can you get this guy out of here before I slap his ass with a singularity? He's annoying the other customers, and myself." The bartender gestured toward a certain blonde (not to be hair-ist though) idiot.

Shepard was tempted to gape in abject horror at the Cybran Marine Costume (TM) Conrad Verner was wearing. Didn't he dispel this guy's Spectre dreams already? And where the hell did he get the idea he'd gotten a gun stuck to his face from?

_He's mentally unstable._ Urz thought to Shepard's crew only from where he was sitting. _I can sense it from his psychic signature, can't do anything about it though._

"That was what I was afraid of." Shepard hissed to his squad, muting external speakers.

"I remember when you taught me how to do things back on the Citadel, I'm here working for an undercover cop…"

Shepard facepalmed "Conrad, with a big mouth like yours, no cop would ask YOU for help, now get the hell out of here before Urz hurts you. Besides, if the undercover cop wanted to stay undercover, she wouldn't reveal anything to you, would she?"

"Uh…"

"Here, you'll need some help, so…" Shepard hit the man with a tranquiliser and he went down without a noise "Kasumi, we've got a pickup, get him to the Normandy and chuck him in a stasis pod, we're taking him back to whatever hospital he broke out of." Shepard growled "In the meantime, find out which hospital this guy broke out of…"

Kasumi sounded rather breathless when she answered "Great timing, huh?" She bit out sarcastically "Get him to the front door to the bar, I'll be there…"

Shepard and co grabbed Conrad and began to drag him toward the exit to the bar, where they handed him off to Kasumi. On the way back to the actual bar…

"We'll figure something out, stop worrying." An Asari was saying to a Quarian. That meant something was wrong, and that meant it was time for "Commander John Shepard" to step in and, as was usual when he was bored, save the day, among other things. "It's okay, I'll think of something."

"You said synthetic insights would buy me, you said it was an easy sale!" The Quarian sounded rather… indignant… at not being… SOLD? Alarms went off in Shepard's head at that.

"I assumed they would want an AI tech…" The Asari wiped her forehead just before Shepard's towering black Cybran Heavy Armour, complete with menacing red circuits and highlights, plus blazing helmet optics stepped into the vicinity. Four females (recognizable by accommodations in the armour), two males (Legion had been quiet so far), and one large creature with huge claws stood behind him. "Hello, can I help you with something?"

"I need you to let that slave go, NOW." Shepard growled, extending the fist spikes he'd just customized into his armour in imitation of Urz's claws, and Urz added a growl of his own for effect, flexing his huge forearm blades in threat.

The slave broker scratched the back of her head "We, uh, prefer the term 'indentured servant', and I know Batarian slavers have made humans understandably prejudiced against slavery. Before you do anything hasty, know that this Quarian signed the agreement voluntarily, and her servitude contract is completely legal on Ilium. If you actually want to help the Quarian, persuade the Synthetic Insights rep to buy her contract."

Shepard dimmed his optics patterns slightly and retracted his fist spikes "Why did this Quarian sign herself into slavery?"

"I tried to play the stock market, I'm good with numbers and I thought I had a way to make unlimited money." _Every race had it's semi-morons, or just the really naïve…_ Shepard thought "I lost everything, then I got a credit line and lost that, then I took out an illegal loan… you get the picture." Urz facepalmed beside Shepard at the things the Quarian was saying.

"As part of our agreement, I paid off her debts. Five years from now, she'll have a fresh start and excellent work references." The slave broker said matter-of-factly.

Shepard snorted "Sounds great…" _And like something someone so DUMB deserves, almost too nice…_ "unless you lose her paperwork or come up with a reason to hold her longer."

"All contracts are monitored by Ilium law enforcement. In a case such as you describe, the burden of proof would be on me." She gestured to herself "No system is perfect, but safeguards are set up to protect all parties."

Shepard's eyebrows were far up by now "So slavery is legal on Ilium?"

"Indentured servitude lasts a set amount of time, or until agreed-upon conditions are met. Ilium must approve all contracts. The law limits what restraint or corrective options I can use, and what tasks I can legally assign her. I am also legally responsible for her behaviour and health. Abuse is absolutely forbidden."

Shepard frowned "If slavery is legal why are you trying to sell the Quarian?"

The Asari shrugged and shook her head "I don't keep service contracts myself, I'm a contract broker. I assumed Synthetic Insights would want a skilled AI tech, but they won't even make me an offer…"

Shepard frowned deeper "Why not just keep her? You said she had technical skills."

"Quarians' strict health requirements and diets make them expensive to house and feed." This broker was at least direct about it… "I run a small profit at best, I don't have the money for constant suit repairs and clean-room facilities."

The Quarian was understandably nervous at that "So what happens if Synthetic Insights won't take me?"

"A solution always presents itself, I'll take care of you." Shepard nodded inside his helmet at that. Good, much better than slavers from elsewhere.

He thought of something though "What if I bought her myself? I could let her go, and everyone would be happy."

The broker shrugged helplessly "A gallant offer with three problems. First, her technical skills merit a contract of several hundred thousand credits."

"There's also a fee for freeing me before my service period ends." The Quarian added.

The broker nodded "Exactly, and finally, you are clearly a traveller" Shepard had an abrupt and vivid image of himself wearing a Traveller-59 logo, and then another image of a Reaper decorated with a Reaper-17 paintjob "her service contract requires that she stay on Ilium."

"I don't want them to take me off to a mine somewhere." The Quarian explained.

Shepard nodded "I'll talk to the Synthetic Insights rep and see what I can do." Ideally, it would secure a job for the Quarian as well as teach her some life lessons with the servitude, make sure she doesn't do something as dumb as she did this time around.

The broker seemed overjoyed "Really? Thank you, I'd appreciate that."

* * *

"You deserve somebody who respects you, someone who's going to treat you right." A human man was saying to the Quarian woman who sat across from him.

The Quarian shrugged "Oh, I think I'm just going to stop dating for a while."

The man looked startled and his eyes grew wide "No, don't do that, don't let some Turian spoil you!"

The apparently depressed Quarian waved it off, her face lowered, probably looking into her drink canister, which was currently not attached to her helmet "It's always the same thing, 'Ooh, she could get sick' yeah, true, he was dextro-amino too, but still… 'she's vulnerable. I wonder what she looks like under the helmet.'"

The man clasped his hands together in front of him and gave a lopsided grin toward the Quarian "You'll find someone out there who cares about you for who you are, not just someone whose food you can eat."

Shepard watched/eavesdropped on the proceedings for a bit before he went over to the person his HUD had designated as the Synthetic Insights rep based on the name tag. The Asari noted their approach and greeted them with "Can I help you with something?"

"I know a slave broker who'd like you to sell you the contract for a Quarian programmer…"

"Synthetic Insights has no interest in purchasing slave labour, we're under enough scrutiny from the Citadel without engaging in practices the Council disapproves of." Most of that scrutiny was probably because of Cybran investigation into Synthetic Insights' products, since they were interested in examining what the Citadel had in terms of AIs. "To be frank, we're hardly hiring anyone, the Geth attack on the Citadel didn't engender much love for artificial intelligence."

"Sounds like Synthetic Insights is worried about its reputation, hiring this Quarian could help."

The rep raised one of her eyebrow patterns (the vast majority of Asari had them naturally for unknown reasons) "Buying a slave helps our reputation? How exactly do you figure?" She shrugged.

Shepard shrugged right back "Purchase the contract, minus the fees for early emancipation, then free the Quarian and garnish wages for reimbursement."

Tali stepped in with "The Migrant Fleet would be grateful, and more likely to make purchases from you."

The rep frowned "You're Quarian?"

Tali sighed and took off her Aeon Medium Armour's green and white helmet "Yes, I am Quarian, so I'd say I know what the Migrant Fleet will likely think."

The rep nodded before turning back toward Shepard. "You've got good business sense… we look good for hiring a Quarian and we can say we freed slaves out of the goodness of our hearts. Alright, I'll run up a contract, the board might wet its pants but we could use the good publicity… this Quarian better be good though."

Tali nodded "No worries, the batch she's from, according to her suit, has a lot of good AI techs, not as many great mechanics or machinists, but none of them are 'bad' per se."

The rep nodded "Alright, see you later."

* * *

"Synthetic Insights just sent over the contract, I cannot thank you enough." The broker said gratefully.

Shepard nodded "I'm glad to help."

"Here…" She handed him a credit chit "for your trouble, now, if you'll excuse me, I'll get this service contract transferred."

"Thank you, I'll stay out of trouble this time." The naïve Quarian said as she passed by.

"Hard to believe some of my people can be so naïve, I know." Tali said over squad comms as they watched the two leave. Shepard moved back over to eavesdrop on the human and Quarian sitting at a table again.

"If you're hurting for things to do, maybe after work we could catch a vid or something." The human was saying, though by his blush and the way he was staring at his mug Shepard was tempted to pinch the young man's cheek for his adorability.

The Quarian simply said "Oh that's sweet, but I'm okay, a little dry spell isn't going to kill me."

"We could watch 'Symbiont of the Flotilla', it got awards for its portrayal of, um, Human and Quarian relationships…"

"Anyways, if worst comes to worst, I did have the nerve-stimulation program built into my suit."

"And I hear the love scenes are… What?" The man stopped mumbling into his reflection and looked up at the woman sitting across from him with an expression of surprise on his face.

"Oh yeah, standard equipment for any responsible adult, here, let me fire it up… Uh, excuse me, human, private conversation?"

Her human would-be suitor agreed "A little space please, Cybran friend?"

Shepard shrugged and walked away, the six people on his crew following. A groan over squad comms told the squad Tali was embarrassed at what was the Quarian equivalent of self-stimulation being done I such a public place. In actual fact, Tali was more thinking of how she'd programmed her nerve stimulators to simulate a certain Shepard brother instead of just plain old normal stress-relief stimulation.

"So, let's go back to talk to the bartender, they always have interesting stories, and if your claim that our life is an RPG is true, Garrus, she'll also have side missions, well, let's go test your theory…" Shepard took his helmet off, perhaps this "Real-life RPG" as Garrus had called it had triggers based on whether you approach with a helmet or not, time to test that.

* * *

"Thanks for taking care of that crazy guy, saves me having to beat him to death with his own spine. That makes the other customers nervous." The Asari said matter-of-factly. "Anyways, this is Eternity, and I'm Aethyta, Asari matriarch and bartender, get you anything?"

Shepard frowned, recalling what Liara, Benezia, and the other Asari on Procyon had told him "You're a matriarch? I thought matriarchs were honoured advisors."

Aethyta nodded "Right," She gestured at the bar top "which I do here at this bar. I know, not what you'd expect, but no one on Thessia wanted to listen to my 'wise counsel', or to have me around for that matter, so here I am. Dad was a Krogan who fought in the Rachni Wars, Mom fought in the Rebellions, I've pretty much seen it all."

Shepard raised an eyebrow "Your mother fought in the Krogan Rebellions?"

Aethyta rolled her brown eyes "I don't know whether she 'fought'" She used air quotes for that "She scouted, sniped a few people, and blew up a few space stations, you know, Commando stuff. She'd put the old commando leathers on for special nights with Dad." Aethyta had a fond grin as she spoke before she brought a hand to her forehead "Goddess that was embarrassing"

Shepard shifted slightly so he was standing at ease before saying "Your father fought in the Rachni Wars?"

Aethyta shrugged "When he was young, loved showing off his war scars, Krogan think they're sexy. Me, I go for asses." Shepard was suddenly taken back to a time when Benezia had started doing Red Alert 2 quotes… and acting them out (Liara had managed to get her mother to drink a bit too much). The "Shake it, baby!" part had given him a good (to some, it would have been a horrifically good) idea of where Liara had gotten her perfect behind… _Stop thinking about her now, Shepard, you're not on hormone suppressants anymore, and your armour isn't designed to accommodate THAT much length._ "When I was a girl, he'd tell me about landing on this poison-filled world and stomping a Rachni Queen into muck. The scientists say we don't really get genetic info from the father, seems I got a bit of his mouth though."

"If your mother fought in the Rebellions and your father was Krogan, didn't that cause tension?"

Aethyta shrugged "They didn't meet until a few centuries after the Turians put the boot in with the Genophage." Shepard had a sudden mental image of a boot loaded with vials dropping down toward a Krogan base on Tuchanka. Aethyta began wiping the bar top as she talked "As far as either one knew, they were both just warriors, Dad boasted, Mom stayed quiet. Mom was a Matriarch herself, and Dad was pretty close to her age, when the truth came out."

Shepard propped his elbows on the bar, taking care not to hit down hard enough to dent or crack the surface "What happened when he found out?"

"I was about a hundred, wandering the galaxy with my two best friends, they got me on the link, told me they were going to have it out." She waved vaguely at that "And made me promise to love whichever one survived. That was easy, since Mom died in an air car crash about a month later, being one of the strongest in biotics of her generation, like me and my friends were strongest in ours, didn't save her then. Family, huh? What a kick in the quad…"

Shepard finally got to the question he started off wanting to ask "Why is a matriarch in a bar serving drinks?"

Aethyta was noticeably riled at the subject "It's better than what most other Matriarchs are doing, look at that screw-up with Saren and his Geth a few years back!" Legion made a beeping noise over squad comms as if annoyed with the designation for the heretics. "Their ships were hanging bare-assed in space when Saren started shooting, if not for your Coalition we would have bought it right then and there! And I warned them! Told people on Thessia what was coming, and they didn't want to listen."

"What didn't they want to hear?" Shepard pushed for info.

Aethyta started making an animated, charismatic speech that sounded like the matriarch she was "That art and philosophy and political prowess wasn't going to cut it. We can't go a single Asari lifetime without some big war breaking out. We need to get our daughters working earlier, not spending their wild maiden years stripping or in merc bands! When I started talking about making new mass relays ourselves, they laughed the blue off my ass, so now I serve drinks… and own this bar." She finished with a flourishing gesture toward the bar top.

"What's it like, living for over a thousand years?" That was the Matriarch age line these days, so she was at least a thousand years old.

Aethyta sighed "Violent, wars break out, colonies get destroyed, sometimes you hear good news, like that colony on Feros surviving, but that's the exception. You find peace in whatever arms will hold you. Turian, Elcor, Hanar, eventually went back to my best friends though" She looked away from Shepard, breaking eye contact "even had a pureblood daughter, I was the father… didn't work out." She had a note of sadness in her voice as she spoke. "Then one day you wake up, your figure's gotten matriarchal" Shepard looked her over and noticed nothing bad, sure, her hips and curves were more round and less angular, a bit like how Liara's had been more rounded (and softer, and therefore more wonderful) than the typical Maiden. _Stop, Shepard, you're your mental wandering, just because you're off the suppressants doesn't excuse this…_ "And everyone's too young to remember how the Quarians looked inside those suits."

Shepard nodded and smiled "Thanks for telling me about that."

Aethyta nodded and smiled, business was slow at this hour of the afternoon, so she might as well talk with this Coalition soldier, humans, and Seraphim for that matter, were new to the Galaxy and somewhat mysterious to even Matriarchs, though the vast majority had not even been in direct contact with one "That's what I'm here for, babe, get you anything else?"

Shepard only thought for a moment before deciding a drink would do him good "I'd like something to drink."

"Sure, I'll set up a tab at the drink kiosk, knock yourself out, literally if you want. Just don't drink anything for Turians or Quarians, does nasty things to insides of most levo-amino acid species. Once saw a Krogan drink a liquefied Turian on a dare six or seven centuries back, nobody came out of that one looking pretty."

Shepard nodded "Got it, thanks for setting up the tab."

"Right, don't eat the nuts in the red bowls, they're for Turians and Quarians, you'll get cramps." Shepard nodded acknowledgement before turning his head. "See, Garrus, no side quests or Easter Eggs, your theory that life is a huge RPG fails."

"We'll see… why don't you have some of this Mystery Drink?"

* * *

"You sure you don't want to go talk to Liara?" Tali asked, ignoring the glares from Jack, Miranda, and Jedore at the idea of coaxing Shepard to go talk to his sort-of-ex-girlfriend.

"No." Shepard whispered stumbled slightly "I saw pink lipstick on the bartender for Network's sake after I drank that mystery drink! Who knows how much of a fool I'd make of myself if I actually went to talk to Liara?" He set up a channel between him, Garrus and Tali only after that.

Jack and Miranda, bringing up the rear of the procession, each nodded inside their helmets at Shepard's refusal to talk to Liara, excellent, they _might_ have a chance at him, but the window of opportunity was small, they'd have to make a move soon… Jedore, on the other hand, observed Shepard's sombre mood when talking about Liara to his old friends, being right behind him, he could see every bit of the dejection in his body language and felt her heart sink. She really didn't have a chance, did she? Oh well, then she would have to make sure the fairy-tale couple of the dashing young Commander and the blue maiden stayed together.

* * *

_CSC Normandy, January 23, 3871_

"I'm going to have to make a move soon." Kelly murmured as the status lights showed Shepard's crew coming up. Joker had talked to her about it, maybe she should take up Shepard's offer of dinner together, tonight… His liver would be able to filter out whatever he'd drunk by then… oh, here he came, and Thane too… "You have new messages at your terminal, Commander."

"From: Captain Chellick, C-Sec." Shepard read "Hey, Shepard. Just wanted to let you know that the Drell kid's doing okay. Everything's taken care of legally, and he's doing some work for me. Helping me deal with some trash in the Wards, maybe make life better for some of the kids like Mouse. Not perfect, but then what is? Don't know if your Drell and mine are talking. I told him life was too short not to, but I don't know if it took. Good luck out there, Chellick."

"That's good to know…" Thane commented. At Kelly's glare, he realized something "Uh, I should leave you two alone here for now."

Shepard scratched his head "Wonder what that's about." He looked up at Kelly's olive-green eyes, which were almost stereotypical for Aeon women (though redheads were more common in Cybran space) "Is there something you want, Kelly?"

Kelly ran a hand through her orange hair "Uh… you said something about dinner sometime…"

Shepard realized what was up and nodded with a smile "Ah… you're welcome to come up, Kelly."

"Great! So, I'll see you in your quarters at 7 PM?"

Shepard scratched his head "Okay, I guess." That was in two hours, in the meantime, he'd make his rounds of the ship…

* * *

A/N: Normandy's Land Vehicle (other than the SCU it carries around) Reveal in one Chapter (i.e. in Chapter 30).

**LAST CALL** FOR GUESSES! POST YOURS IN A REVIEW!

Candidates are as follows:

Tier 2: Wagner T2 Amphibious (Submersible) Tank (Cybran), Riptide T2 Amphibious (Hover) Tank (UEF), Blaze T2 Assault (Hover) Tank (Aeon), Ilshavoh T2 Assault Bot (Seraphim).

Tier 3: Titan T3 Siege Assault Bot (UEF), Loyalist T3 Siege Assault Bot (Cybran), Harbinger T3 Heavy Armour (4-legged walker, Aeon), Othuum T3 Heavy Armour (Tank, Seraphim, read: Awesome)

Note: Ilshavohs are slower than the other three T2 choices, and cannot traverse abyssal depths unlike the Wagner (though it is slightly slower underwater than on land). Othuums are slower than Harbingers, which are slower than Titans and Loyalists (those two are tied for speed). All the T3 units are able to handle abyssal depths without trouble, though all are slightly slowed underwater.

I will **not be updating** until I get **at least ten people** to **guess at the vehicle**, it's somewhat symbolic.

**Chapter 30 is sitting, completed, on my hard drive, free it by reviewing with your guess.**


	30. A Wanted, Marked Man

A/N: Note that this chapter contains smut (hence the Wanted part of the title), including but not limited to self-stimulation, inception-style, etc. Shepard's going to get laid (hence the Marked part of the title)… With whom, well, take a guess.

I'm sorry, guys, but I don't think I put down the numbers right: These days, we have the Harbinger Mk VI (That's two marks above the Seraphim War model) as standard issue. Also, Othuums are slower than before, Harbingers too, assuming no upgrade tree options, which increase mass (thus weight) and energy price (60 and 70 m/s respective, still 216 and 252 km/h, fast enough.) Titans and Loyalists when with full upgrade options can run along at 100 m/s or 360 km/h, and in sprints (sustain slight damage over time to structural fields when used) can add another 20 m/s.

Ilshavohs are faster these days than Obsidians, just saying. For the record, health isn't much of a consideration in unit choice since almost every unit included in the list is going to be absurdly OP when fielded against anything else in Council Space. And no the vehicle is not experimental in any way, shape or form as it came with the Normandy. Hence it's nothing really new, just a typical land vehicle with full upgrade options. I think Mastermind4892 overanalyzed a bit, no offence intended.

You'd have ADD too is every time you try to run your balls hurt, that will be rectified.

I realized a bit too late that going through the vehicle reveal here would make this chapter uncomfortably long, so… I guess talking with Legion will have to wait until next chapter, don't worry, I'll post it ASAP.

* * *

Chapter 30: A Wanted, Marked Man

_John Shepard's Quarters, CSC Normandy, January 23, 3871_

Kelly had been up here before, but not for a dinner date, the last time she was here had been for a 1v1 match-up, a match that had ended in Shepard's victory when he'd chosen Seraphim to counter her Aeon factional choice on the mostly-water map of Paradise. They'd spent some hours talking and bonding afterward, much as Shepard had spent several hours in Miranda's quarters playing against her, talking and bonding before.

The young redhead was nervous, since she was probably the worst of the choices Shepard had on this ship. Samara and Jack were both powerful biotics, each beautiful in their own ways, Jedore was a gorgeous, tanned blonde with a Soldier classification and extreme firepower, Miranda was a Sentinel with a variety of skills, and Kelly was… well, just Kelly. She wasn't a real Marine nor a Commander, only had basic ACU training (i.e. only simulators), and her job was just going around writing psych profiles and conveying messages to Shepard. She was useless in many ways, yet she was the only one Shepard had invited up to his quarters so far. That was a good sign, wasn't it?

She wore her usual uniform though, didn't want to seem like a slag… When she got there, Shepard had already set everything up, the living/dining room of his flat hadn't been decorated, but the table was prepped with food and the customary wine, Ice wine in this case. "Kelly, you're early." He had a warm smile on his face and motioned toward the other chair at the table.

Kelly shrugged "I've learned things are better done early than late…" She sat. "So, now that we're up here alone… what do you want to talk about?"

Shepard quirked his mouth in a lopsided grin "Oh, this and that, I noticed there's a fish tank in my quarters, did you have anything to do with that?"

She nodded "Yes, I thought it would be an excellent form of relaxation and beautiful as décor."

Shepard frowned as he took his first bite of food "How would it be used in relaxation?"

"It's nice to just watch fish swim around without a care in the world at times." Kelly said simply, beginning to eat after Shepard did. "besides, it's like a cooler sometimes, you can use the surface to cool things down" _Or people_, her mind added, _while drilling them from behind… KELLY! GET YOUR MIND BACK ON TRACK! STOP STARING AT HIM!_ "Okay, that sounded much better in my head." They chuckled. "It's just… peaceful, every soldier must be at peace at times if he is to survive, after all… you know, I could feed your fish while you're away?" She looked hopefully at him, knowing perfectly well it was more an excuse to smell his pillow so she could remember his scent. It was light for a man, but perfect for making her aroused, she suspected that Miranda might have had something to do with it…

"I'd appreciate that, Kelly."

Kelly's face lit up with happiness "It's my pleasure." They kept talking for hours after that.

"It was nice talking to you and making cracks about your sister, Kelly, maybe we could do it again sometime."

"Agreed, Shepard, we should do this again sometime." Kelly said as they neared the doorway, locking her Aeon Green eyes with his chocolaty pools of gooey goodness that she could happily drown in. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and pulled his muscular frame to her own softer, warmer body. Women, on average, were stronger than men, but Shepard wasn't an average man, so he matched up to the women onboard in terms of physical strength. She inhaled deeply before sighing and letting go, but not before she planted a kiss on his lips.

Shepard blinked in shock as Kelly left, okay… _MIRANDA LAWSON WILL PAY FOR CROSSING CIRCUITS IN MY HEAD!_ There was no other plausible explanation as to how everything he said to women would come out wrong and attract them to him, either that or he was hallucinating… Maybe talking to Jack would make the world more sane (hopefully she'd fight his insanity with her own and thus the universe would be sane again), he hadn't gone over to talk to her during his rounds, in fact, he's avoided Miranda, Jack and Jedore during his rounds, perhaps he should go talk to them now…

* * *

A/N: First tidbit of smut in chapter in the section between the next two dividers.

* * *

_Kelly's Quarters, CSC Normandy, January 23, 3871_

While Shepard was going to make his rounds, Kelly had gone back to her quarters in a slight daze, still remembering the way Shepard's eyes had searched her soul and the impulse to simply drown herself in those pools of smooth dark chocolate as she kissed the life out of him and he did the same to her… Damn, she'd have to change her panties at the rate she was going, what with her lips, both sets of them, tingling at the daydream…

Actually, she wanted to do a lot more than that, namely have him rip her panties off her before impaling her on his huge cock. She'd caught a glimpse of some of the medical files Chakwas kept on the crewmembers, and the number cited under "Misc. Details" of every male's records sure made him sound very impressive… Oh well, she would have to make do for now. The redhead rummaged through the box she kept locked under her bed before finding the right item, a rather large cream-coloured dildo. Incredibly, even after so many centuries, sex toy manufacturers had mostly stuck to the classics after a few forays into the uncanny valley of walking corpses between fun imitations and realistic humanoids…

She looked the toy over, good, she'd remembered to wash it off last time she'd used it, then again, that had been in the shower, so it was obviously washed off. Kelly gave it an experimental lick before setting it down for now and stripping out of what little clothes she still had on. She sighed as she blew on one of her pert, fully hardened nipples before rubbing the tip of the dildo, coated with her saliva, around the nub and blowing on it again, shifting her hips slightly as the sudden coldness was compensated by an increase in the warmth pooling in her belly. She spread her legs apart a bit further and ran two fingers between her labia, stroking them between the lips but not plunging them in yet despite that fact that she was on the verge of dripping onto her sheets. Her other hand was bringing a breast to her mouth and squeezing the milky globe when she realized something…

Kelly Chambers liked teasing… if it was the right person doing it, or the right time for herself to do it to her own body. This, however, was not a "right time", or so she now decided. Hence she let her breast go, watching it jiggle as it bounced back to its natural position before bringing the dildo down to her wet lips with the hand previously occupied with kneading her breasts. She pushed it in without further ado and couldn't help but moan at the familiar stretch of penetration. She began to pump the toy into herself roughly, closed her eyes and envisioned Shepard doing the pounding after bending her over her bed. According to her fantasy, he would come in, talk about his feelings for her, and then she'd jump him, kissing him and helping him tear her clothes off as they made their way toward the bed. Then she'd crawl onto the bed, swaying her bum in the air, before he's tease her a little with his cock before making her beg, then plunge in and fuck her roughly from behind, impaling her over and over on his huge dick.

"Yeah, fuck yes, Shepard, faster, deeper, harder!" She ground out, still with her eyes squeezed shut so she could fantasize about John taking her harder than she'd ever been taken before, not that she'd done it that many times in the past…

Forgetting about the memories of past times as she found her g-spot, Kelly moved the hand that had been stroking between her lips away from her clit and licked her fingers off before roughly grabbing her left breast and kneading it. She moaned at the rough handling just before rolling onto her right side, imaging Shepard rolling over with her onto the bed before she hooked her left leg around his thighs to yank him closer, deeper.

She kept pumping herself hard with the toy until her orgasm hit her, letting out a shuddering moan as her muscles spasmed around the invading phallus. After she finished twitching, she brought the toy up to her lips and licked her juices off as if it was a Popsicle. Kelly decided she wanted more and pulled the box under her bed out into the open before popping the lid.

Needless to say, Kelly's Chambers (as Jedore had painted on the door much to the amusement everyone else, including EDI, who decided to change the holographic sign after Kelly had scraped the paint off) were not a place for innocent ears that night.

* * *

_Jack's Quarters, CSC Normandy, January 23, 3871_

"Shepard, all these times you've come down here to talk to me, helping me with my past…" Jack sounded rather hesitant to continue, a new thing from the tough biotic, or at least a new thing to Shepard.

John frowned at where Jack was sitting on her bed. "Go on." He encouraged with a gesture of his head.

Jack took a deep breath—further cause for alarm by Shepard, nothing rattled the hardened ex-convict like this—before continuing "If this… all the questions, all the games, all the talk, vids, all this shit, if this was all about sex, then you should have just fucking said so earlier."

Shepard's jaw just about smashed a hole in the deck before he spluttered "WH… WHAT?" He stared, open-mouthed, "No, Jack, just, no, I just wanted to get to know you better."

"Well then, if that was the case… I was thinking, you know, with all your questions. We've seen a lot of shit together now, and you're always coming to talk to me. You got feelings for me, Shepard? Is that what it's all about? I don't need the complication…"

Shepard frowned, why did everything take pretty much everything he said wrong these days, it was like there was something wrong with him that made women hunt after him… and it wasn't a good feeling, since the one woman he _wanted_ to have hunting him, wasn't. "Having feelings for a person isn't as bad as you probably think it is, Jack." _Just like it isn't bad to have friends, Jack…_ "Basically, yeah," _You're my friend, my sister-in-arms, of course I have feelings for you… Wait, I'm sounding too much like Kelly, loving everyone and everything._ "freaks you out, huh?"

Jack blew a raspberry "Leave me alone, Shepard, I don't want this."

Shepard shook his head, everyone needed a support matrix of some sort, even Jack, he was hoping the crew could form that support matrix "You're lying."

"Don't tell me what I feel, I've been here before and I know what I need, for me."

Shepard snorted "I quote Leonard Cohen, 'Baby I have been here before, I know these walls, I've walked this floor'…"

Jack facepalmed and groaned at the horrible attempt at humour "Damn… I was about ready to boot your ass out of my rooms and you make me laugh by pulling a line crazier than I would."

"Come on, Jack" _Talk to me, talk to someone, don't let your internal pressure go critical… You deserve better than to self-destruct after what the fucking Seven Hand put you through…_ "Talk to me."

Jack frowned at him "Why? I'm not interested in some dumb shit love affair, never goes right."

John rolled his eyes _Hallelujah I'm not interested either, big surprise, huh?_ He stood and crossed his arms over his chest in annoyance "Why do you put so much distance between us?" Shepard honestly meant the "us" as in "Jack and every other bloody person on the goddamned ship" Jack didn't quite take it that way.

Jack got up from where she sat "Murtock, a guy, used me like the rest, for sex, for biotics. It was fun, and he ruined everything. We tagged a weapons frigate with a Batarian escort and got separated: He had a choice, leave with the guns, or come back for me. Idiot dumped the score and waded into the squints, I made the shuttle, but no way was he getting out." Shepard abruptly remembered reports of chaos being wreaked in the Terminus by a pair of humans shortly after First Contact with the Citadel Races. Hell, it had been a minor speed bump in negotiations, and he'd been working as a guide for the Council on their tour…

"And?" Shepard prompted.

Jack turned her tattooed back to Shepard and wrapped her arms around herself "I fly for about a day or so and the shuttle kicks out this recording, he set it to play if he hadn't checked in, figured that would mean he was dead. Talked about the future we were supposed to have, about how he'd planned to set us up a home… how he…" She actually swallowed and shivered "how he loved me and he was sorry it wasn't going to happen."

_What the hell does that have to do with Jack interacting with the rest of the crew?_ His brain stopped short _Right, if we all become one big happy family she's scared we'll all die on her like Murtock did…_ "You feel like his death was your fault."

She shook her head slowly, as if not entirely convinced "No, he did it to himself… You feel, you get sloppy." She turned around, and there were tears shining in her eyes, Shepard kept his mouth shut, he'd just been resurrected a month ago and had no desire to die again so soon. "It's that damn simple, he found out, and you'll find out."

"If he'd left you, you'd be dead." John thought this Murtock would have been a good friend to have around, didn't sound like such a bad guy after all.

Jack snorted "So what? You ever seen me flinch? Or run? Death is easy, fucking on/off switch." _Uh, I disagree, but I'll keep my mouth shut because I prefer living, at least for now…_ "But this, it just burrows in. Like those husks, you end up with nothing inside, I'm just supposed to take that and say 'Thanks, dead guy'?"

_Step One: Confession to self, check._ John's mental checklist went before he continued "I can't make all that go away, Jack, not in a few talks…"

Jack snorted "No kidding, including the 'few' part, you've been down here, what, twenty-something times since I came onboard? That's like once a day, heh, told you this re-socialization wouldn't work, guess you'll be spending more time upstairs instead of down here with the mad biotic playing simulator games or throwing darts at that dartboard." She gestured toward the dartboard in question.

Shepard shook his head "No, I'll be here." _You're about the only person mad enough to balance out the rest of the ship after all._

Jack gaped, then recoiled back "But you just said…"

"I said I couldn't fix that, I didn't say you weren't worth staying with anyways." He regretted his diction as soon as the words were out, he should have used "Hanging out with" instead.

Jack had an expression of abject horror for a moment before spluttering "Okay, what the flying fuck is wrong with you, Shepard?"

_Lots of things, the love of my life decided to turn into a vicious monster that I couldn't even summon up the guts to meet again, I died and was resurrected, my Yeoman thought we just had a date… lots of things, not everyone's life is as_ badly _messed up as yours, Jack, but some people's lives are messier, quantity versus quality…_ "So you're crazy, so what? That's a prerequisite for recruitment on this mission, hell, we recruited an Elite Zerg!"

"It's just going to hurt, or you'll mess around and I'll kill you or something."

Shepard raised his eyebrows, if he betrayed the trust of a damaged person, he'd probably deserve her wrath "So?"

"So that sucks!" Jack looked toward the ground, her eyes obviously near brimming over.

Shepard shrugged "Life sucks, because it ends eventually, but how many good experiences will there be along the way?"

Jack was silent for a long moment "Yeah, maybe you're right, Shepard, I need to think, see you later."

"Alright, see you later, Jack." Shepard was actually surprised, she spoke without using obscenities, that meant he was making real progress… Also, the fact that he didn't get booted out of her quarters, literally, was another good sign, though he was fervently hoping his assessment that she was coming on to him was wrong.

* * *

_Miranda's Quarters, CSC Normandy, January 23, 3871_

Miranda's Quarters were tied for third largest on the ship (After the two symmetrical Loft Suites), one of the two largest (the other was Jacob's) on the crew deck, directly across from the Armoury man's quarters and nearest of all quarters (door-wise) to the bridge. She greeted him with "What can I do for you, Commander?"

"Got a moment to just talk?" Shepard was praying for a no…

"I wondered when you'd be back…" That didn't sound good "All this time we've spent together and you haven't mentioned anything about the last time we came close to something… I don't know what this… thing between us is, stress relief? Blowing off steam?"

Shepard frowned "What are you so afraid of? That you'll actually start caring about people?" She sure had a pretty good Ice Queen mask, but he knew that at least at one point in the past she'd cared for Jacob, and he was nothing if not a matchmaking hobbyist. Besides, Jacob was holding the line against Kasumi's advances, not to mention ogling, and Miranda needed to get her act together, fast. Also, she needed to start caring more about the crew she served with, lose whatever superiority complex the Order had given her, the galaxy wasn't nearly as hierarchal as the Illuminate had been back in the day…

"This is no time for emotional entanglement…" Miranda said exasperatedly, walking over to her bedroom and sitting down on the bed, thinking about how she was still conflicted between old feelings for Jacob and whatever was between her and Shepard, though the latter felt distinctly different from the former, she didn't have enough long-term relationship experience to place it.

Shepard, on the other hand, knew exactly what was up with her. She was probably concerned at the fact that her best friend, and her love interest could be different men, because of the stereotype that your love interest should usually be your best male friend. That was likely because she had no men in the family or group that had raised her to teach her that closeness doesn't mean romance. _You want to get out of emotional entanglement? Go get Jacob back, if he'll still take you back, that way the awkward tangle between you, him and Kasumi will be hammered out._

Miranda kept talking "You and I know more about the Collectors than anyone, we know how unlikely it is that we're coming back alive! What idiotic bunch of hormones thought that now was a great time for love?"

_I really, really, hope that's platonic love she's talking about…_ "Who said anything about love?" Apparently his attempt to hold back howling laughter at the sheer absurdity of the situation was showing on his face as a cheeky/happy grin instead of the nearly painful battle of wills that it actually was.

Miranda smirked "You ass." She looked down at the ground, thinking.

"Come on, Miranda, you know you want my," He corrected himself "our friendship."

Miranda, with a thundering herd of thoughts stampeding through her head, mostly regarding the fact that things with Shepard felt different than before, probably because she was more mature now, more willing to commit to things… caught his words as "Come on, Miranda, you know you want my… our …ship" It was unusual for her hearing to work that way, or for her to be so distracted, so her response after a long while of thinking, stood up, matching her sea-green eyes with Shepard's brown ones was "Yeah, I do… so don't die! You promise me, damn it!"

Shepard snorted and rolled his eyes "I already died once, don't plan on doing it again."

For some odd reason (odd to Shepard), Miranda said "Give me some time, when I'm ready, I'll come by, okay?"

Miranda's head was still crowded with thoughts regarding her relationship difficulties and partly berating herself for still not completely letting go of Jacob when she went back to her office and back to work. Shepard merely nodded mutely as she passed.

* * *

As soon as he was out of Miranda's room and the door closed behind him, Shepard shivered. Something was in the air, something which could potentially have disastrous results for him as the women of the ship tore him apart… Thankfully, the already-accounted-for women didn't seem to be affected, but the next person he had to visit…

* * *

_Jedore's Quarters, CSC Normandy, January 23, 3871_

…was not one of them. Jedore was a lot less oblivious, probably because she'd actually been paying attention to or was there for his every interaction with Liara. She had figured out eventually from the depressed look he had today when Liara came up (and from badgering EDI into giving her a peek at Shepard's journal for his mental health) that she didn't have a chance with him. Therefore, she went all-out Hammer of Thor on him. "Shepard, you're in a pickle."

Shepard threw his arms up in joy "Finally, a single woman who doesn't want to jump me!"

Jedore's slightly tanned face darkened, becoming darker than her golden tresses as she growled "I did before, but you and your Asari are too fairy-tale-like to break up, so I decided it was better if I helped you with her… and with keeping away from the rest of the single women on the ship."

Shepard crossed his arms over his chest "How do you propose I do that?"

Jedore stood straight from where she'd been leaning against her wall "Let them all down easy, explain to them you only want to be friends and a brother-in-arms for them."

John opened his mouth "But what if…"

"What if they're persistent? That what you were about to ask?" The ex-merc said shrewdly, picking at her fingernails.

"Well, yes."

"There are ways, one of the best is to pretend you're taken." Jedore stated calmly, raking her mind for possible candidates for Shepard, maybe Samara would agree to this outlandish plan, or Gabby? No, she was with Ken… Chakwas? Shepard would get experience dodging cooking implements from Gardner, which would be a problem… Kasumi was too busy Jacob-hunting… and Tali would probably result in a rift in the Shepard family.

Shepard had finally cleared away enough clutter in his memory to find the necessary subroutines to handle this "Why do I get the feeling this is just a way to persuade me to at least pretend to have a relationship with you and then try to make it real?"

Jedore gaped "What?" She spluttered "I was just going to suggest Samara or someone…"

Shepard grimaced "You know perfectly well the only unattached female not out for my blood on this boat is you, Jedore."

"So are you saying you want to pretend to have a relationship with me? Get the fuck out, Shepard, and spend some time in the main cargo bay, you need to learn a couple lessons there, go!" She picked him up and bodily threw him out of her room before he could protest, slamming the door shut in his face. As soon as Shepard left, Jedore started punching her mattress in fury.

Shepard knew exactly what she meant, though he vocalized nothing.

* * *

_Cargo Bay, CSC Normandy, January 24, 3871_

Legion was, surprisingly, also in the main cargo bay. "Greetings, Shepard-Commander" the Geth said shortly after John entered.

"Hello, Legion…" The Geth surprisingly didn't seem to be doing anything "What are you doing?"

"This platform is building consensus on the usefulness of this vehicle on our current mission, still not yet complete." Legion said robotically.

Shepard nodded slowly "Ah…" He craned his head to look up at the massive war machine, which despite its being less than a tenth the weight of the Seraphim-style SCU the Normandy carried (incidentally, the same one that had been recovered by salvage teams two years ago from Alchera) was still impressive. Then John walked over to the opposite end of the cargo hold from Legion, wanting some privacy while he mulled things over.

He brought his emotional problems back from the back burner he'd forcibly pushed them to with his Cybran capabilities, then thought back to his conversations with Liara. Sure, he had been expecting her to slap him around, maybe break a limb or two by accident with her biotics, but he hadn't expected her to be so… cold. Hell, her skin wasn't as warm as he remembered it, it seemed her body temperature had been lower than before ever since he came back… That was probably not healthy. Then there was the sort-of-almost kiss between them, where she'd pulled away and shaken her head sadly, as if to say _I'm sorry, John, but we can't be together anymore, it's been too long_. That was painful with the way she looked at him afterward, her eyes a tungsten grey, devoid of the warm blue he had always seen in them before his untimely death. Her skin was more ashen than the rich, beautiful blue it had been two years ago, and she had distinct patches around her eyes that seemed almost salmon compared to the rest of her skin, most likely from stimulant use or exhaustion. It had been worrying how she wasn't taking care of herself when she deserved to be pampered. Shepard felt a wave of guilt wash over himself as he sat, watching the clock tick closer to the "morning", guilt that he had died and couldn't have been there to love her like she deserved to be loved.

* * *

_Liara's Apartment, Ilium, January 24, 3871_

In the past two years, while her beloved Shepard was… _dead…_ Liara shivered at the thought subconsciously, she had been afraid of going to sleep sometimes. The memory of her looking inside Shepard's stasis pod still haunted her, the mass of what looked to be ground meat and bone splinters the man she had loved had been reduced to haunted her, as did the memory of the Normandy being destroyed with only one fatality, its Commander and the first one Liara T'Soni had ever loved.

Now, she wasn't so afraid of sleep anymore, though she still had to force herself every night, since the nightmares would still sometimes have her waking up in the dead of night shivering and biting back tears at the memories. These days, the nightmares mostly centered on the forlorn, heartbroken look in Shepard's eyes as she told him she couldn't go with him, that she had other commitments, without even explaining. Tonight… tonight was no different.

She saw herself coldly explain to Shepard in more verbose terms that he wasn't that important in her life anymore, that she'd found something better to commit her time and energy to. She felt a wave of crushing guilt, almost as if it was drowning her, from Shepard, guilt that he had died and couldn't have been there to love her like she deserved to be loved. She wanted desperately to just comfort him, to wrap her arms around him and tell him that she was the one who should have been guilty, that she wanted him back, and that he had done what he could in that he made her leave and thus ensured she survived.

* * *

_Cargo Bay, CSC Normandy, January 24, 3871_

John kept his eyes closed as he thought about the mistakes he had made that had led himself and Liara to this point, not to mention the colonists that were lost because the first Normandy failed to kill the Collector Cruiser, and then after that, letting the ship go just so they could figure out where the base was. But that was secondary in his mind, the important thing was that he wasn't there for the woman he loved with his life—literally—when she had obviously been in a crisis after his death. A crisis that shaped her into the very different woman she was today.

Something seemed to percolate through his mind slowly, a whisper in Liara's melodic, soothing voice, in no particular language but the language of thought, that she should have been the one to be guilty, that she still wanted him back, and that making sure she survived was the best he could have done for her sake when he'd died. He pushed it away hesitantly, countering what was surely his own mind's arguments with the fact that he had gone up there when he could have simply ordered Joker to abandon ship, the pilot, with the assistance of Civilian Armour, could have made it to the bridge pod without much trouble, the rest of them would all have survived while the Normandy's combat AIs fought the Collector Ship to a standstill. The voice didn't come back, thankfully, since he was hurting enough without a voice that sounded like Liara comforting him and reminding him of exactly what he'd lost, of the words they would exchange as they laid, stood, or even sat together…

* * *

_Mindscape of Liara T'Soni, Bodily Location: Ilium, January 24, 3871_

Liara suddenly found the dream a lot less immersive, a lot less real. It was as if a barrier, an impervious barrier, had sprung up between the Shepard she saw brooding in what was obviously the Cargo Bay behind the Normandy's vehicle, and herself. She wanted to break through, wanted to be there, to be with him, to comfort him, so sob out her apologies into his shoulder, but she couldn't. She couldn't even speak to him in the dream, shout that she was sorry, or beg him to take her back…

* * *

_Cargo Bay, CSC Normandy, January 24, 3871_

Shepard kept beating himself up mentally, wondering why he even bothered going back to Ilium if he was going to lose his nerve at the last moment and put the Restorer under not only passive camo but active camo (standard for ACU or Space warfare, not so much for typical Council Space assignments) too. Then he'd thrown away the chance to go back and talk to her by drinking some mystery drink that made him see pink lipstick—PINK!—on the bartender at Eternity, obviously, he'd lost his slowly scraping-together courage right after that. Shepard had known right then and there he'd make a fool of himself if he went to her office, and that Liara would more than likely finally crush what little hope he had left for them like a Fatboy… okay, maybe a Galactic Colossus was more appropriate… would crush a T1 Land Scout or a T1 Wall Section.

* * *

_Mindscape of Liara T'Soni, Bodily Location: Ilium, January 24, 3871_

_I am not fat, nor am I a boy! John Shepard, you would know, how many times have you made me scream in pleasure as you plundered my body of every ounce of pleasure I could give and gave more than that much back to me? Hmm, a GC IS more appropriate, curvier… wait, I am NOT Colossal!_ Her subconscious yelled indignantly at Shepard's thoughts before she shushed it, the last part coming out as more of a whisper. The dream had turned into a one-way mirror by now, more or less. Said subconscious continued to murmur regardless, though it was much kinder now. _If you remembered what our Unions felt like, you would know I could never crush your heart, John, you were my first love, we Asari know well that you remember your first love for the rest of your life, and those feelings never go away, not completely. I'm sorry I broke your heart last time, John. I wish you would trust me enough to come back to me…_

The dream faded, and Liara's mind finally slumbered as her body was doing, curled up in her bed. She didn't know, and she had never noticed, but starting the night after Shepard's resurrection, she had always slept on either one side or the other of the bed, leaving space for someone else. Often, she would wake up backed into a pillow or clutching a pillow and half her comforter (A/N: like duvets, if you fit a cloth case around them, I call these things blankets, please remember that.) to herself, often waking up nuzzling them, on the nights she didn't have nightmares, that is.

* * *

_Cargo Bay, CSC Normandy, January 24, 3871_

Shepard thought glumly of the chances he had with Liara, looking down at the deck of the Cargo Bay. They weren't good, but she was the first one he'd ever loved. Sure, he loved everyone on the ship as a dear friend and a comrade, someone he would entrust his life to, but Liara T'Soni was the one who had ruined him for all other women… He looked up hopelessly at the towering war machine in the Cargo Bay and sighed, he had made his choice.

Legion was still busy building consensus, so Shepard decided to go back to sleep, he'd have to talk to the women of the ship tomorrow.

* * *

_Bridge, CSC Normandy, January 24, 3871_

"Goodness, I hadn't stayed up that late since my university days." Kelly said "I had a wonderful night, thank you, Shepard." Shepard noted her hair was slightly more ruffled than usual, and that she looked a bit tired but exceedingly happy about something, almost bouncing off the walls with joyous energy, a major contrast to Shepard, who was more than sombre. "Is something the matter, sir?" Kelly frowned, Shepard looked ready to be buried, the way he looked.

When Shepard spoke, it wasn't so much his words as his tone that alarmed her, it sounded down, dead, out of confidence, tired, and everything else she had long suspected one of the major heroes of the galaxy to have kept bottled up inside. "Kelly, I needed to make something clear… I just wanted to be friends with you, last night's dinner was meant to be friendly, not… a date. I've decided to hold onto my principles, at least until Liara formally tells me she doesn't want me and that I should go find some quiet corner of the universe to shoot myself in so she'd never have to see my hideous face again." Kelly would strongly disagree if anyone ever made such a claim about Shepard's face. "It's not that you aren't a great girl, and if I wasn't already hopelessly in love with Liara I'd probably want to date you, but you deserve better than someone hung up on someone else. There are plenty of men in the Galaxy, Kelly, someone out there's bound to be right for you." Shepard smirked before falling silent.

Kelly's mouth opened and closed like a fish, and it felt like a bucket of cold water had just been dumped on her head. "But… sir… I'm sorry, Commander, I just thought…" She took a moment to regain her composure "thank you for being so nice about it, Commander." She still felt like she wanted the deck to open and swallow her up with how epically she'd failed, but she had a feeling Shepard would probably catch her and put her back on her feet with armour and weapons if the deck did open up under her and she fell. "Let's keep things professional then." She nodded curtly.

Shepard held his hands up in a placating gesture "I… No, I want to get to know everyone personally, it's just, not THAT sort of personally."

Kelly rolled her eyes in understanding "Ah… psychologist style, huh? Well, thanks, Shepard, for coming to talk to me, it's helped clear the air, a lot. Is there anything else you'd like to talk about?"

Shepard nodded, it was good to see the old Kelly again so soon after he'd let her down "Anything new with the crew?"

She shook her head, smirking "Samara would like to talk to you down in Forward Starboard Observation, but she said it could wait until tomorrow if really necessary. If you're really as deeply in love with Liara as you claim, you should really consider going down to talk to any other women you've made the wrong impression on."

* * *

_Miranda's Quarters, CSC Normandy, January 24, 3871_

"Look, Miranda, I just want to apologize if I gave you the wrong sort of impression, I just wanted to be friends, okay, so maybe my speech had a glitch, but…" Shepard scratched his head, Miranda's eyes watching him were worse than practicing in front of his mirror… "It doesn't excuse what I said."

Miranda blinked owlishly before looking down with a slightly sad smile "Yeah, I was thinking the same, the mission comes first… Thanks for coming by, Shepard. I've got some work to do."

Shepard nodded, and scooted out of the room as fast as he could, knowing he couldn't afford to overstay his welcome. If he did, there wouldn't be enough left to apologize to Jack with. As soon as he left, Miranda punched her seat in frustration, she'd lost. Still, it would give her more time to think over the Jacob fiasco and more importantly why the hell she was still thinking about it, unlike every single other casual relationship she'd had in the past.

* * *

_Jack's Quarters, CSC Normandy, January 24, 3871_

"Jack, we need to talk."

The convict lazily flung another dart at the board "What's it about, Shepard?"

"About our relationship…" He shifted from side to side nervously "all I've ever wanted was to be friends, nothing more, I'm sorry about my speech patterns glitching before, if I gave you the wrong ideas…"

Jack grinned wolfishly "Excellent, the cheerleader, Kelly and Jedore owe me now." At Shepard's puzzled look, Jack explained "we had a bet a week or so ago, on who would snag you, Lawson bet on herself, the egotistical bitch, Kelly bet on herself or Jedore. Jedore bet on herself or Lawson, and I bet on me or that Asari you're always moping around about."

Shepard gaped "I was NOT moping!"

Jack burst into laughter at the indignation in Shepard's voice "Yeah, keep on telling yourself that, Shepard. I went up to your deck last night when I couldn't sleep and through the door I hear you making these moans, groans and whimpers with 'Liara' whispered reverently every few mumbled sentences? Had to change your boxers when you woke up, didn't you? What were you doing? Humping a pillow?"

Shepard's mouth was half-open "Uh…" Actually, he'd been having a nightmare of Liara dumping him, berating him for every single thing that could possibly be negative in any way that he had done over the course of their relationship, even his originally small size (after the repairs were finished, not so much). He had been making noises of distress as he curled up in the corner of his dream, apparently, they'd reflected in reality too.

Jack waved it off "Don't worry, Shepard, I don't blame ya for any of this, besides, I could use your friendship. I'm busy right now though, piss off." She resumed typing on her holo-console, though what she was doing was hidden from Shepard, and he knew better than to ask.

* * *

A/N: Shepard is about to get laid, in a supremely abnormal fashion that may or may not knock your socks off. This is going to mostly be smut with some fluff at times, and may seem odd to read. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED, NO COMPLAINING IN REVIEWS ABOUT "Too much smut."

* * *

_Shepard's Quarters, CSC Normandy, January 24, 3871_

Shepard fell back onto his bed, tired from the annoying distress call they'd responded to, another merc trap they'd smashed, and groaned as he remembered he hadn't talked to Samara yet, oh well, she _had_ told Kelly it could wait until tomorrow… Besides, there had been jolts of pain whenever he'd sprinted from his blue and complaining testicles, which had steadily worsened during the day.

He was thinking of a very different Asari than Samara as he showered and crawled into bed, his boner from thinking of said Asari nearly painful and his balls nearly the rich blue her beautiful skin had once been. He feared they'd start turning greyish (her skin colour now) and from there go gangrene if he didn't get any release soon, but masturbation just wasn't cutting it, not even with toys. So he had to leave it, for now.

It was hard, literally, to fall asleep when your dick is pitching a tent in the sheets, just like it had done for the past two days. He couldn't even think about Liara in a non-self-depreciating sense or look any of the women onboard in anything other than the head area (helmet in Tali's case) without getting a hard-on. The problem with the first way of thinking about the woman he was still in love with (however one-sided it may be) was that he had a nasty pain in his testicles whenever they tried to crawl up into his belly at his self-depreciation. The problem with the second situation was that he was shockingly getting aroused watching TALI of all people and John knew perfectly well that she would be rather hyper and bounce off the walls (Quarians were roughly equivalent to post-Quantum Age humans, so this was frequently literal) whenever James called.

He winced as he tried to sleep, lying on his side, which was still uncomfortable with how his penis was serving as almost a support leg much as those found on archaic bicycles. Yes, those legs that deployed to let the bike stand without support. He shifted his leg to relieve some of the pressure the mattress was putting on his dick and shivered at the jolt of pain in his blue and surely damaged balls as his legs squeezed them slightly. It was a long time before John Shepard could drift off to sleep, and this made him thankful he had decided to go to bed early.

* * *

_Unknown Location, Unknown Time_

Liara woke up slowly, in the dim light of the room… a room she didn't know, but with a familiar scent to it… though a bit denser than she remembered it, and a very familiar mattress in the form of… "John?" She asked timidly, noting that he too was waking up.

Shepard grinned lazily at the apparition before him as she traced circles on her lower back and ran his hands over her arms lovingly, savouring the texture of the blue-grey skin, which was less healthy than the rich blue it had been two years ago but still perfect to him. "Yes, it's me, Liara." It seemed only appropriate to respond to the inquiry from her that way, though he wondered why she even asked, had she woken up on top of someone else before? He immediately knew it was not so.

Liara was wondering why she even asked, she'd never woken up on someone else other than John in her life. But she realized what this was… Both of them realized what it was… _This must be a dream…_ Shepard and Liara both thought at the same time, hearing their combined voices tell them it was so in the backs of their heads, so in sync they were. The next thought was also at the same time, and was right after Liara noted her leg, thrown over Shepard's leg, was pushing up against something that was quite stiff. _Let's make the most of this dream then… but first I must say some things…_Neither of them knew if it was their own thought or the thought of the person entwined with them that they heard. Neither of them cared.

Liara spoke first, as she always had in their relationship "Shepard, I'm sorry about how cold I was when we met again on Ilium… I… words can't express how much I want you back in my life, please John?" She thought privately that perhaps patching things up with this dream-Shepard would be easier than the real thing when it came time for the real thing, of course, the fact that she was already in this position would likely make it easier…

As if afraid the vision draped over him at the moment would perceive it and be offended, John thought to himself and only to himself, shielding his thoughts _Weird, my dream is comforting me instead of torturing me, though… if she rubs my dick any more with her legs then I don't think I'll want to be responsible for my actions…_ Then he put his mind back to the matter at hand "You know I could never give up on you, Liara. There's always been something indefinable between us from the day we met, it was as if a permanent, perfect bond existed between us from the very beginning… We always knew how and when to compromise, when to comfort each other, hold each other close or…"

Liara was wearing only a sultry smile at his well-spoken words as she lightly grasped him, thinking privately to herself _this dream version of John really knew exactly what I wanted to hear, it was almost as perfect as the real living, breathing version…_ her eyes widened as she felt the much larger length and girth of his cock compared to before, wondering how it would fit inside her.

Shepard chuckled as he saw the question on her face, and for some reason in the back of his mind, probably because his dream was helping him get closer to relieving some of his blue balls problem… "And of course, we always knew just when to fuck each other senseless and when to make slow, sensual love…" He followed her line of sight "Oh, right, I've gotten a few… repairs, since the last time we made love."

Liara's eyebrow patterns rose as she looked back toward her John, well, this dream version, she prayed the real John Shepard would take her apologies and confession as well as this dream version did… then again, if they were not in bed together, she would have probably let anger cloud her judgement or been preoccupied with other things, and thus said some very stupid things. It was good the dream placed them in the same bed, completely naked, already, though she was feeling the burn from that between her legs as she shifted her hips to rub up and down against John's thigh, knowing perfectly well that he would be able to feel her … She was surprised at how wet she was, and by his expression so was he. She hadn't been wet since he died… still, she smiled and looked at him through half-lidded eyes as she slowly, languidly stroked her hand up and down his fully repaired, massive shaft "Ooh, I like the sound of that, John… let's test it out, shall we?" She ran her nails gently over his balls, something he had always liked, then drew back as he winced. "Is something wrong, John?"

"Yeah… ever since I got fixed, I've been on hormone suppressants, so I wouldn't get a hard-on too easily, apparently my body is getting back at me for two years of celibacy and a month of hormone suppressants by giving me really blue balls." Shepard shifted uncomfortably "I don't think I'll last long…" He bit his lip, hoping she wouldn't be disappointed.

The room suddenly became warmer to Liara as her skin seemed to respond to John's lovable embarrassed flush by flushing as well with love for the man currently beside and half-under her in her private fantasy… "Don't worry, John, I won't mind if you didn't last long, after all, we've got to solve your blue balls…" She peeled back the sheets, sitting up as she did so, and gasped at the sight of his glorious length being fully unveiled, and the nearly pulsing bluish package just below the huge shaft. She also noted that this dream version of him didn't have any body hair other than what was on his head, namely his eyebrows and head hair.

Shepard, upon tearing his eyes away from her beautiful breasts, though he still preferred the old rich blue to the grey-blue they were now, suddenly felt slightly nervous with how Liara was staring at his dick, her expression frozen in surprise "I know it might be a bit too much…" He was cut off by Liara bending down and giving him a long lick from the base to the tip, needless to say, he moaned.

Liara's eyes brightened and she smiled broadly at the salty taste mixed with something distinctly Shepard before she whispered "Perfect." She thought to herself that it could apply to the dream rendering or to the penis her imagination seemed to have given Shepard as a result of his resurrection, or even to the taste. "Hairless as well, even more perfect, it won't tickle my nose when I kiss it better" She leaned in and kissed each one of the faintly pulsing blue balls, making John groan at the pleasurable contact. "Are you sore, John? Should I kiss it better some more?" At his vigorous nod of approval and the way his penis jerked further upright, out of her way, Liara smiled and rewarded him.

John's eyes rolled back in his head as her soft lips grazed over his balls. It was pure heaven, the fleeting contact of her lips. He wondered where he had gotten the idea of this dream from, ah well, might as well enjoy it… Suddenly one of his balls was enveloped in soft, wet warmth "Liara, what are you do—ooh!" He moaned as she sucked one of his engorged, sore, tender and blue balls into her mouth. "Liara… if you keep that up I'm going to cum…" He ground out through his teeth as she tenderly massaged his testicle with her tongue, making breathy moans that had him quaking in pleasure with her warm breath on his still-wet penis and the vibrations stimulating his testicles, even the one not in her mouth.

Liara let his scrotum slip out of her mouth with a final suckling noise before licking her lips and propping herself up on her elbows "Wait, Shepard, I want you in my mouth, and my mind, when you do cum." Shepard's cock jerked in anticipation, nearly hitting Liara in the face as she smiled from where she was on the bed, just before she linked their nervous systems… "Hold my crest, will you?" She asked mentally, physically, she was kissing the head of his cock while looking up with big, innocent eyes.

_Wow, this dream is so realistic it even includes the firewall warning…_ Shepard thought privately as he reached down with both hands and ran them lovingly up her crest while she pushed herself down on him, taking more of his thick beef stick into her mouth and moaning at the pleasure of him stroking her crest gently but firmly.

He reached the ends and tweaked them gently, bringing another muffled pleasured groan from Liara that travelled all the way to the base of his cock, which twitched as she began pushing it into her throat, suppressing her gag reflex as she worked her throat up and down his abundant length, feeling her neck distend slightly with his length entering it. She loved the feeling of him being buried within her throat to the hilt, and made some pleasured vibrations with her vocal chords in addition to thinking the message to him that _It feels good to have you down my throat, like this was the way it was meant to be…_ She pulled back and took a few breaths while working her tongue around the first few inches before she bore down again, cupping her John's ass and pushing his penis into her throat. It was the hard but somewhat flexible variety, which was to Liara the best thing she had ever pushed down her throat, all the food of her life included.

Shepard was nearly hyperventilating with pleasure, watching her bob up and down on his length, her butt clearly visible past her fringe for him, swaying slightly with every plunge she took of him into her mouth thinking to her _Damn, Liara, it feels like I'm in heaven when you do that, then again, I'm in your mouth, and that's heavenly enough to qualify… Ooh…_

Liara had giggled at the compliment, and the result was a shivering vibration travelling all the way to the base of her Shepard's cock and then to his balls. She moaned as she shared in the pleasure, plus the pleasure from Shepard pumping his hands slowly up and down her fringe, and that just amplified it. She told him so, mentally, of course, as she continued pulling him into her mouth and out again.

_Damn, Liara, it's all I can do to not just fuck your mouth right now…_ Shepard's head was lolled back in pleasure at what she was doing to him, sucking his meat deeply into her and fondling his still-wet balls lovingly.

Liara shifted her hips some more as Shepard's mental message made her even wetter than she already was, she could feel her natural lubricant literally running down her legs and dripping from her pussy now, such was her arousal. Her completely hardened nipples rubbing against the sheets were also incredible, and she wished she could pinch them… wait, she could… she had heard of it in the past from fellow students at Serrice university, the best Asari university of all. She summoned small mass effect fields that pulled at the nubs, making her hum in pleasure at the feeling. She would have summoned a biotic field to penetrate herself as well, had she not wanted to save the feeling of plunging into her dripping cunt, unused for two years since the man who'd taken her virginity died, to this dream Shepard… speaking of which, this dream was incredibly real, even the Union seemed realistic with the pleasure they shared. She looked up at Shepard's face and saw his deep chocolate pools watching her, his teeth gritted as if to hold back his orgasm, and his hands still stroking her fringe without applying any downward pressure. She thought to him coyly as she blinked at him with her grey-blue eyes _You know, John, I wouldn't mind if you fucked my mouth…_

Shepard spoke out loud "I don't want to hurt you, Liara…"

_Silly, do you really think you could make me do anything I didn't want you to do?_ Liara thought to him, her reasoning made sense for two reasons, one, this was a dream, as both privately thought, and her biotics could reduce him to red paste in seconds. Shepard's only response was he hips bucking up into her mouth as he cautiously applied slight pressure with his hands, which were holding her fringe with the thumbs on the inside, nearer the back of her skull, and his fingers on the outside, stroking the two crest endings that formed each side of the fringe. He stopped once in a while to make sure she got enough air to breathe, but Liara would more often than not just yank his hips back to her face, shoving him further in, and the look of intense pleasure on her face as she did so was what pushed him to and over the edge.

He could feel the cum boiling out of his balls and mentally shouted out a warning to Liara, trying to hold it in, which only prompted her to take a quick breath before shoving him all the way down her throat so that her forehead was touching his abs. Needless to say Shepard exploded, careful not to squeeze on Liara's fringe as his hips involuntarily jerked upward into her mouth. His cock jerked three times, each time dispensing a good amount of sticky, warm, somewhat salty fluid into her throat, which was working to swallow it as quickly as he could shoot it into her. Liara began to remove his cock from her throat reluctantly, since he only typically had three loads when he would cum before he died. A fourth filled the back of her mouth and her eyes widened as she froze, her tongue still stroking the underside of his dick as a fifth load filled her mouth to the brim (without distending he cheeks that is). She finally pulled away before swallowing, licking her lips before bending down again and sucking the last of the white fluid from his still fully erect dick.

_Goddess, Shepard, you've really been upgraded, huh?_ She mentally teased as she stared at his tool, which was showing no sign of softening, though his balls were less blue now. Shepard blushed and nodded before his eyes widened as Liara climbed up his body, her breasts, or rather her rock-hard nipples, rubbing up against his chest as she leaned in and whispered "How about you give me a test drive?" She rubbed her cunt lips up and down his cock, letting it stimulate the nerve endings on the insides of her labia as well as get coated with evidence of just how aroused she was and how badly she wanted him in her, filling her up.

When she finally impaled herself on him, Shepard really did fill her up, all the way to the brim. He was large enough that she felt like she was going to burst, yet it was the most incredibly pleasurable thing of her life to feel his hot rod rub every millimetre of her love tunnel on every thrust, even bumping up against her cervix once in a while. He didn't seem to have lost much of his skill either despite the hardware changes, using their Union to find her g-spot within a minute or two and pounding against it on every thrust up into her thereafter while sucking on one breast, and holding her hips with his hands. Goddess, her dream Shepard was almost as good as the real thing…

Shepard was thinking along the same lines, his dream seemed to have gotten EVERYHTING right about the woman he was hopelessly in love with, down to her reaction when he nipped at her hard-as-a-rock nipple. She didn't take long to climax, screaming his name as he slowed down slightly due to the wild spasms of her muscles around his length, prolonging her climax with slow, deep thrusts, staring at the junction of their bodies where with every thrust in some of her juices would be squeezed out of her and with every move out more would emerge, coating his dick. After her climax passed she fell forward onto his chest, rather breathless, and it wasn't until his cock, as if it had a mind of its own, twitched impatiently inside her that she stopped gasping for breath and giggled. She looked into his eyes, which in his personal opinion were a plain mud brown, with her grey-blue ones, giving him another vision of drowning happily in the stormy sea of her eyes just before she rolled them over, putting him above her, and raised her legs so her feet were up by her head.

Heeding the unspoken plea in her eyes he thrust home in one swift motion, eliciting a loud moan of pleasure from Liara as she felt the love of her life plunge into her depths again. Her eyes rolled up and her mouth hung open as she used her biotics to help him go faster, harder, pounding her into the bed roughly, which was just what she wanted right now. Shepard figured that he had probably died and gone to heaven if this wasn't a dream. IF this was heaven, he didn't ever want to leave, in fact, if heaven was just sitting with Liara and talking with her for eternity, he still would not want to leave, provided they had a supply of topics to discuss.

This time, when she came with a long, drawn-out moan, her eyes rolled up into her head, her mouth hanging open, and her face locked in an expression of ecstasy, he felt himself lose control again. When her vagina began milking him for all he was worth, he gave her another five large, thick shots of his semen with a reverent whisper of "Liara…"

The Maiden-stage Asari was surprised that he still had so much to give, but she wasn't complaining as she felt his warmth enter her, not even counting the heat radiating into her belly from his cock, still sheathed fully inside her and poking against her cervix slightly. Liara went limp as her orgasm ended, and John pulled himself out of her, careful not to put too much of his weight on her. Though Asari and humans were similar in toughness, it was still a sweet gesture, and Liara felt a warm and fuzzy feeling in her chest as they cuddled together, talking to each other about what they'd been doing recently, and apologizing repeatedly to each other for their mistakes, and vowing to mend their relationship one way or another. She knew that this was all a dream, and that she still had a long way to go with the real Shepard, but to be honest with herself, she missed having her boyfriend with her. It wasn't just the lovemaking, it was the little things too, the way he treated her perfectly, as if he had known her every nuance from the beginning, the fact that their conversations could always reach consensus and compromise, all that… though of course the lovemaking was an added perk. He had been small but skilled before, but now… now he was pure perfection…

She just hoped the real John Shepard didn't run off with one of the other beauties on his ship considering how she'd treated him. Oh how she wished she could have taken everything back, embraced and kissed him like she now really wanted to, maybe even made love to him on her desk… and of course suck their mixed cum off his dick like she was doing now, noting it was still oddly somewhat hard.

Shepard found himself wishing this wasn't just a pipe dream, a fantasy, that he really had a chance to fix his relationship with the one woman who'd ruined him for everyone else. He looked back on his silent vow to himself that he would fix their relationship no matter what it took and mentally grimaced, knowing that he had just dug himself a pit he would no doubt willingly walk into simply because Liara could possible be waiting for him, the light at the end of the tunnel. He just hoped she had not decided to go off with someone else, someone more worthy of a woman of her calibre, especially since she had ruined him for all other women. He couldn't explain it, but from the first moment he saw her he had known he would fall madly in love with her, later if not sooner.

"Liara… I know I'm not good enough for you, but I still need to know, has there been anyone else?" She was startled by a figment of her own mind actually asking her that, but she replied easily, there was only one response she could ever give her John Shepard… the honest one "No, John, there's never been anyone else, it's always been you… only you." She buried her face in his chest, absently noting the accuracy of her mental rendering of him, down to the couple centimetres taller he was now.

He smiled almost sadly as he stroked her head fringe and kissed her crest, their legs still intertwined "Silly Liara, you should have found someone better, someone actually worthy of you, while I was gone… but I'm glad you didn't."

"I'm glad I didn't too…" Liara said, smiling into his muscular chest before thinking of something and pulling her head back to look up "Was there anyone else for you?"

She looked so vulnerable and insecure, searching his eyes for an answer to a question that had never needed asking that Shepard felt more useless than the shit-filled mud he'd always thought his eyes were coloured like. The fact that he could make her look so scared when, after her stay on the Normandy, she powered a miniature mass relay without a hint of fear made his heart ache, and he told her the truth, the whole truth "I've never felt for anyone else what I've felt for you, there were a couple misunderstandings when my use of language had a bit of a glitch, but I've cleared all that up just today, or yesterday, depending on what time it is now." Both of them looked toward the bedside clock in Shepard's Quarters, or the dream rendering thereof "Okay, so it was yesterday…" He said with a soft smile "There never was anyone for me except you, and there never will be." He leant in and kissed her forehead before she pulled herself up on the bed and brought their lips together in a kiss of promises of days to come, of sorrow at the time they'd lost, and above all of the love they shared.

After communicating a thousand thoughts in a single instant with their minds and mouths, the two young lovers settled down on the bed. Both privately thought it was perfect, the way they could simply enjoy one another's presence, right up until they started spooning and Liara felt something pushing against her lower back… She turned her head, with a naughty grin and twinkling eyes, to face Shepard, though her back was still pressed against his front "John Shepard… I didn't realize your upgrades were so extensive."

He blushed in embarrassment "Sorry, but it just won't go down… my balls still have a bluish tinge for some reason." He frowned as he looked down after moving away from her. She found she missed the warmth of his body, even if this was all just a dream, and she was just talking to her image of John Shepard.

She still looked at him with half-lidded eyes though "Oh, I most certainly didn't say I was complaining… believe it or not, now that you're here with me, my body is REALLY telling me to make up for spare time…" She raised one leg invitingly, spreading her sweet lips, and he instinctively put a hand under her grey-blue thigh, though her skin was nowadays more blue than grey, unlike when they'd first reunited. He looked into her eyes questioningly, waiting for the encouragement that came moments later "Come one, John, make love to me, I need you, all of you." She initiated the Union again.

That was all the cue he needed as he thrust in, going slowly to make sure he didn't hurt her with the sudden intrusion, then speeding up with her loud and mental encouragement. The room was filled with the smell of sex, the sounds of skin slapping against skin, moans of encouragement and pleasured sighs as they made love, their bodies moving as one and bringing them together as if they were starving or addicted to one another. Liara arched her neck back as he began to hit her sweet spot, she basked in the sensations that accompanied penetration by her lover, feeling her taut abdominal muscles shifting slightly on every thrust to accommodate the very much welcomed intrusion into her body. _Uh that's it, Shepard, you're nailing my spot, keep going…_ The mental message sounded like she was panting from the pleasure they were sharing, Shepard smiled before he leaned down and began sucking at her neck, nipping lightly at the pulse point and sucking his way along her collarbone just before Liara grabbed his head, shifting her own and her upper body so their lips could come together in a heated kiss.

Their tongues immediately met in a sensual dance, their mouths merging into one entity, mating just as their bodies were doing, tasting one another and themselves all at once. Groans and moans of pleasure were muffled by the welcomed exchange of saliva and promises over the link. It only took a few minutes of John's skilful work for Liara to clamp down tightly on his invading phallus and release a long moan of his name that was muffled by their conjoined mouths but was clear across the mind-link they shared… _It's very realistic for a dream…_ He thought privately. _Maybe it's not my skill but the fact that this is my fantasy that's making her cum so much…_ That was sobering, then again, it was Liara he was fantasizing about, he was sure his mind wouldn't lie to itself… too much.

Liara felt her body go limp for a moment as she broke off the kiss, taking a few deep breaths and looking into her John Shepard's chocolaty eyes as he pulled out. She quirked her lips in a lopsided smirk and shook her head before sitting up, looking at his glistening, magnificent tool before leaning in to suck her own essence off of it. This is the most delicious snack I've ever tasted… She thought to the figment of her imagination as she licked her own juices off his penis, including the pre-cum that was slowly oozing from the tip. After she finished cleaning him off, she got up from the bed and giggled at his moan of complaint, right before she bent over his desk "Come on, John, I want more of you in me." She wiggled her butt, looking back over at him over her shoulder through lust-clouded eyes "Please?"

He was in position behind her in record time, his hands running along her sides teasingly, making her giggle, then gasp ahs his still very much hard cock teased her folds. She looked back and saw him grinning as he made his dick twitch while resting it against her folds, holding her hips with his hands as she wiggled them back, wanting to feel him in her again. Sure, she could just overwhelm him physically and force herself back hard enough to take him in without even using her biotics, but it seemed this dream John Shepard loved torturing her… much as the real Shepard had when they were together. She looked back at him with big, pleading innocent eyes as she rocked her bum up and down a big, letting him feel her essence trickle onto his length, soaking it again in her juices. She enjoyed being tortured this way immensely, but the pent-up desires that had been neglected for the past two years seemed to make her need to have him in her. _John, please, just put it in there, come on…_ She wiggled her hips further back.

_I want to hear it out loud._ Shepard groaned out through gritted teeth.

"For Goddess's sake John, JUST FUCK ME!" She cried out in exasperation just before letting out a cry of pleasure as Shepard plunged all the way into her more than ready pussy in one thrust and started slamming into her fast and hard. "Ooh yes, this is perfect…" She moaned as she closed her eyes.

Shepard bent over at the waist and pulled her body to his own, grunting as she shuddered and her muscles twitched around him. He began kissing and sucking at her neck and along her shoulder while his hands roamed her front, playfully pinching her nipples, feeling the effect as she gasped and his cock was drenched with a small pulse of even more of her natural lubricant. His hand eventually wandered down to her completely smooth mound and cupped it before he began tracing circles around her clit while sucking one side of her fringe into his mouth. The pleasure of having her crest, nipples, clit, and pussy stimulated at the same time left Liara gasping for air and unable to do much more than hold onto the desk and keep herself up. The pleasure sharing between them finally brought John to and over the edge again, and she felt him grow even larger inside her just before his warm seed shot explosively into her belly, fuelling the fire there that burst explosively. She screamed wordlessly in pure rapture as she climaxed, feeling the pleasure echo across the Union.

Her legs shuddered and Shepard tightened his arms around her a little as if afraid she would fall as stars burst in front of her eyes and her body trembled violently. Her cunt clamped down on his cock, milking him for every drop of his seed, which was still shooting into her. It was only after she finished that he pulled out, she let herself go limp in his arms as he turned her around wordlessly, before kissing her tenderly.

Amazingly, this wonderful fantasy version of her Shepard still had more to give, seeing as he was still hard, she voiced the question that was bouncing around her head, mentally, seeing as their Union still was not broken yet. _Wow, Shepard, you really did have pretty blue balls, huh?_

Shepard pulled back from her, drawing a whimper and pout of complaint from her plump, juicy lavender lips, then looked back to her darkened blue eyes and smiled earnestly "What can I say? I missed you, and only you could make me cum after the first Union we shared." He frowned _That sounded a lot less cheesy in my head._

Liara giggled at that before looking down and wrapping her hand around his still fully erect manhood, giving it an experimental squeeze. The pulse she got in response drew a nod from her, though she wondered why she wasn't completely knackered yet… It seemed that as long as she was with John, she could go for as many rounds as he could. He was languidly scooping up the cum leaking from her slit and was about to suck his fingers clean when she grabbed it and shoved in her own mouth, making his eyes widen and hers close as she hummed at the scent. That was excellent, but it was really getting hot in here… she glanced at the fish tank before doing a double-take and smiling.

The rest of their night, the rest of their dream, as both privately knew it was, was spent making tender love, cuddling each other, fucking each other's brains out, and talking about their past and future, together. After Shepard's fourth round, they had some food and water, then resumed going at it, after his ninth climax, and Liara's seventeenth, he was completely spent, his balls back to their normal size and colour, and she was similarly spent. So they curled up in bed together… after they changed the sheets, of course. They would clean up the pools of cum, Liara's, Shepard's, and mixtures thereof, which they'd left around Shepard's quarters later. Anything that ended up on either one of them, one of them or both had cleaned up lovingly with fingers, hands and mouths.

"I think it's time to wake up, if that clock is anything like the one in the real world." John smirked down at her head crest, snuggled into his chest, after glancing at the clock on his wall

Liara nuzzled her face into his toned muscles and whined "I don't want to…" She didn't want this dream to end, event though it had to, she wanted to be with Shepard forever…

He smiled sadly, gently tipping her chin so his eyes looked into her bottomless blue ones "I don't want this to end either, Azure, but this has to end sometime…"

Liara felt something like a vice grip her heart and sniffled involuntarily before pushing herself up along his chest "One last kiss before you go then…" Their lips met again.

Shepard savoured the feeling of Liara's breath on his face, her plump, juicy lavender lips pressed against his, her scent filling his nose, her velvet tongue exploring his mouth and her sweet taste. Compared to her, he must taste like shit… and his eyes must look like shit compared to her slightly unfocused rich blue ones… Still, if she was kissing him, he wasn't about to complain, sure, this was just a dream, but it felt so damned real he didn't ever want to leave, but he had a job to do… stop the Collectors, fight the Reapers, so that they could spend the rest of their lives together… if the real Liara even wanted him back.

Liara was enjoying the kiss immensely, feeling her eyes slide out of focus as they met the chocolaty depths of her John Shepard's, his tongue stroking hers lovingly. His lips, though the usually exposed part was rough and tough, were surprisingly soft when one was past that layer, and even the scratchier parts of them felt good against her own lips. The feelings and promises conveyed in the kiss were incredible, she only privately wished it was the real Shepard she was kissing like this, the real Shepard that she would make love to like they had made love in this fantasy of hers. Still, they both had work to do, he had to stop the Reapers, and she had to make sure the Shadow Broker never hurt them like he had again, and she had to wake up to do her job. They both had to do their jobs so that they could spend the rest of their lives together, she had a vague feeling that the universe owed them at least that, but she couldn't place it and thus dismissed it, focusing on the kiss.

Finally, they had to break apart for air and he closed his eyes, a sad expression crossing his face before it became peaceful. "We need to wake up now, Liara, but I promise you that someday, this will be real." She smiled, typical of her dream to comfort her, but still felt good hearing her Shepard say it, even if it was only in a fantasy.

She responded with the only response she could possibly make to that promise "I look forward to it, Shepard, that is, if you'll still want me."

Shepard tightened his arms around her slightly, still feeling himself drown in her eyes and not doing a thing to stop it "I'll always want you." He stated truthfully, wishing secretly that it was the real Liara he was talking to, not his mental image of her.

She smiled, a bit saddened by the fact that this was a dream and not real "I love you, John, I'll always love you, only you… It's time to wake up, John." She disappeared from the dream, and Shepard blinked, his arms, once wrapped around her waist and upper back possessively, falling to meet his own torso awkwardly. He rolled over and smelled the pillow Liara had used for a good part of the night, it still smelled like her, and he hugged it to his own face, hoping this dream would end soon, it just didn't feel the same without her presence, even if she had just been a figment of his imagination. She had still smelled the same as he remembered, looked somewhere between her appearance the last time they'd met and the rich blue she had been when he'd first fallen in love with her, and she sounded exactly like she once did.

* * *

_Liara's Apartment, Ilium, January 25, 3871_

Liara T'Soni woke up flat on her back in her bed, her covers completely pushed to the end of her bed, breathing hard and sweating all over. There was a large wet spot under her butt on the bed, evidence of her arousal, and as she looked down she saw that she was still incredibly aroused, her breasts standing pert, bare and proud with the purple nipples standing at attention even though it wasn't really cold in her room. Looking beyond that she saw how her nether lips and her mound for that matter were glistening in the light of dawn coming in from the cityscape outside, and when she blew on them, she gasped as she felt the cool air brush against her entrance. Then she looked closer, and noted her lips were somewhat spread with sheer arousal, so puffed up they were, as if just inviting a certain John Shepard to come in and take her.

She couldn't help it, she needed to cum again. There was no evidence that she'd orgasmed even once in her sleep, though her mind was incredibly relaxed, her body was still wound tight with sexual need. A sudden thought popped into her head before she could reach down and begin plunging her fingers into her . _Is it really possible for me to clean out my ass like that with my biotics, so that it wouldn't stink? Wouldn't it hurt if John stuck his dick up there in real life?_ She groaned as she felt a fresh wave of arousal at the thought and shifted her hips, rubbing her thighs together, until her eyes widened at the feeling of her juices running down and over her anus.

_It's been two years since I've been aroused…_ Her mind reeled with shock at the thought, back when she and Shepard were together, it seemed like she was dreadfully horny every night, needing to feel him on her, in her, anything. She smiled to herself at the memories _Only him…_

Another voice, the more vulgar, sexual part of her being, spoke up in her mind: _Fuck that, Liara, let's go test our biotics right now and relieve some of this stress!_ It seemed the rest of her mental voices all agreed. She threw her legs over the side of her bed and sat up, moaning as she felt her arousal leak out of her pussy onto the sheets, oh well, she'd have to change them later anyways. She slipped on her slippers and made a run for the bathroom of her apartment before the drops making their way down her toned blue-grey legs could stain her slippers. She quickly dumped her slippers and stepped into the bathtub, which despite its Asari origin was astonishingly similar to human, Quarian or even Batarian designs, and turned the water to its usual setting, body temperature.

She rinsed off the drops running down her legs before she got on her hands and knees, her ass facing the shower head end of the tub, closer to the toilet. She held the showerhead in her hand, and it trembled with her nervousness at this stunt she had never tried before.

* * *

_Shepard's Quarters, CSC Normandy, January 25, 3871_

John Shepard awoke slowly before realizing he had just had a wonderful and extremely sexual dream involving Liara and himself in all sorts of positions around his Quarters… he would never be able to look at the fish tank the same again, Kelly had been right, Liara had loved being pushed against the cool surface tits-first (to be fair, she had pushed herself there first), not to mention being taken against it, held up by Shepard's hands on her perfect ass, her arms around his neck, and their mouths, hips and minds being attached to one another. _It was a dream, John… stop remembering, first priority is to check the sheets, figure out if you're gonna chafe or not…_

Thankfully, the answer was no, and for some reason, his blue balls were back to a more normal colour, though still larger than they were when he'd first been resurrected. Still, he was unbelievably horny and really needed to get rid of the erection he still had, and wash off all the sweat. He got up and walked toward the bathroom, standing in the shower stall he'd made love to Liara in during their fuck-a-thon, in his dream, of course, and looked around before he turned the water on, he probably would never look at the shower head quite the same again with how Liara had used the water and her biotics to clean out her ass, then moved some of her own cum and lubricant to the tighter hole before pleading for him to give her the first anal experience of her life. Of course, she hadn't had to plead much, but… his manhood was nearing pain with how utterly hard it was. He didn't much choice but to turn off the water (conservation was still a prized virtue despite mass fabrication and reclamation making it somewhat redundant) stroke it himself, thinking about Liara, hoping he could actually cum this time, unlike previous attempts.

Unbidden, a mental image of Liara, her perfect ass (though the blue seemed a bit ashen, it was still perfect to John) stuck high in the air entered his mind, floating before his unfocused eyes. She was supporting herself on hands and knees as she biotically manoeuvred a stream of water to clean her ass, holding the orifice open with her biotics and circulating clean water into it and what seemed to be pretty much clean water out.

* * *

_Liara's Apartment, Ilium, January 25, 3871_

Liara T'Soni moaned as she circulated the water inside her body, washing out her anus, before finally shutting it off and cleaning the water out with the power of her mind, it seemed like she could come up with VERY good ideas in her sleep… speaking of which… She stuck a finger in experimentally, humming in pleasure. It had seemed a bit of an odd idea to her at first when she'd seen it in Shepard's mind during their Union. Of course, that meant it was her own mind, as it was only a dream, her own fantasy, but Goddess it had turned out to be so worth it. She worked the finger around in her ass, probing for a few moments before taking it out and sniffing it, it seemed her cleaning had worked, there was no smell anymore. She sucked it, it was totally clean, that was good…

She drew on the juices that had been steadily dripping from her pussy, which she'd held back with a biotic field, and shaped the containing fields into a phallus with a thought. Liara pushed some of her lubricant into her anus with her fingers first, then she grabbed the psionic phallus and shoved it into her love hole, gathering up her juices before she removed it and pushed the tip against her tighter orifice. Liara bore down on her muscles to allow the mentally created penis to enter her. After the head vanished in her with a sudden feeling of her anal sphincter constricting around the main shaft, she stopped for a moment and groaned at the feeling. It was something she had never experienced in real life, only with Shepard in the dream she'd just had of him, but it was oh so good in its own sick, dirty way… She would never think anal sex was dirty again, of that she was sure.

She began to pump the psionic (though she thought it was simply biotics, only psionics could produce solid objects that hold for long periods of time without needing extra concentration) phallus slowly into and out of herself, letting some of the juices she'd collected from herself leak out the tip into her ass to ease the pumping. The power of her mind seemed to have warmed her juices to just above her body temperature, since like Shepard's cum in there had been in her dream heat flushed through her body as the warm fluids entered her, leaking from the tip of their containment field. She moaned and groaned almost continuously in pleasure as she thought of Shepard, almost subconsciously knowing she would not be able to climax without him, or at least without thinking of him. She turned her head, imagining him standing there, his mouth hanging open, watching her and stroking his own wonderfully massive cock, his eyes glazed over and darkened with lust, his throat bobbing up and down as he swallowed dryly.

* * *

_Shepard's Quarters, CSC Normandy, January 25, 3871_

Shepard's mouth felt drier than a desert on Rakhana or Tau Ceti II for that matter as he was lost in his mental image of Liara pumping a softly glowing—and no doubt hard as a rock—psionic dildo she had created into herself. It was incredible, this mental image… maybe he should forget it was an image for now and just enjoy jerking to it, enjoy the breathy moans and groans of pleasure he was hearing.

Liara took her hand away from the mentally created penis and manipulated it with her mind. She pumped the dick faster and faster into herself until she found a comfortable rhythm and started hitting every one of her sensitive spots deep within her bowels with it. By this point, she was panting his name and her pussy juices were, instead of trickling down along her legs or dripping into the bathtub she was in and pooling there before going down the drain, defying gravity under the power of her mind and packing into the balls that appeared from a thought by her, attached to the fake cock. It was among the most erotic things Shepard had ever seen in his life or even dreams for that matter, the way her unfocused eyes were looking right at him made it even better. He wondered vaguely if Liara would ever be willing to do this sort of thing for him in real life.

* * *

_Liara's Apartment, Ilium, January 25, 3871_

She didn't know when she'd started chanting Shepard's name like a mantra under her breath, but she was doing it, that was for sure…She noted that the invading member she had created was now almost full of the juices that she had rerouted from her pussy, so she removed it from her ass, sighing at the loss of the very welcome intruder, and put the completely clean (other than a glazing of her own lubricant) phallus in her mouth, sucking the juices out of it, watching the level of juices contained inside drop even while thinking of her mental image of Shepard, who was pumping himself even faster than he had been, staring wide-eyed at her blue-grey, sweaty, and nude form with a look of awe in his eyes. The trickle of pre-cum from his tip down onto his hand made her lick her lips, wishing he was really here, so that she could actually suck it off of him, actually, that could be done too… She was pretty much doing it anyways, since apparently her mind had created the dick the exact same size and shape as Shepard's, and it was absolutely perfect for her body.

She pushed the now nearly drained fake cock back into her ass, pushing it to the balls into herself before getting up and stepping out of the tub, swaying her hips and feeling how the phallus moved around inside her bowels as she walked back toward her bed, going over to the not-yet-stained side. She would make some stains there before she changed the sheets, considering how dreaming about Shepard had made her feel so incredibly horny and needy, and thinking about him had only exacerbated the problem… _Hmm, I wonder if this will work…_

* * *

_Shepard's Quarters, CSC Normandy, January 25, 3871_

John's half-open jaw hit the floor as a psionic copy of himself, a Hallucination, something he had only thought possible for Protoss High Templar, appeared, smiling at Liara before another copy appeared, and another.

* * *

_Liara's Apartment, Ilium, January 25, 3871_

Liara smiled after overcoming the initial shock, she'd merely wanted to create an image of John to press her into the bed as it obeyed her every mental desire. Okay, it was more of a want to feel his chest against her back as "he" fucked her ass, but if she had managed to create three… Hallucinations, she believed they were called, then she would put then to good use.

She sent one to lie near the edge of the bed and mentally made its penis spring to full attention before straddling it and making its hands grab her hips and start pushing her down onto it. The other two simply stood there until she sent the mental command for them to move over, one image of her John took up position behind her, and began pushing its member into her ass while the third grabbed her head fringe gently and pushed his member down her throat.

Liara felt like she was being ripped in half in the most pleasurable way imaginable with three identical cocks, all shaped and sized just like John's, perfect for her body to take, perfect for pleasuring her and being pleasured in turn. It would have been better if the real John Shepard was here, but for now, she would have to extract physical relief from these three soulless images she had created with her mind alone. The sounds of sex filled the room, as did one Asari's muffled moans and groans of pleasure, her breathing became steadily more ragged, but for some reason she simply could not climax. Maybe it was because the Hallucinations pleasuring her body simply weren't the man she loved, they simply could not replace him, despite her work being so excellent that they even smelled like John and had roughly the same heat and texture to their bodies as he had in her dream.

She needed John, or at least to think of him, the way he would mumble her name in reverence as he ran his hand up and down his shaft rapidly. Where that image she came from, she did not know, but it was what was needed for her eyes to roll back in her head, her internal muscles to spasm uncontrollably and her body to milk all three cocks inside her for all they were worth. As she climaxed, she envisioned huge dollops of cum spurting from John's cock as he masturbated, watching her being fucked senseless by three duplicates of him that were simply not enough to make her cum, whereas the mere thought of him pleasuring himself while watching her pleasure herself was enough.

* * *

_Shepard's Quarters, CSC Normandy, January 25, 3871_

Shepard watched as long ropes of cum, much as the ones he'd shot onto and into Liara's body, painted the walls of his shower stall. Nine huge spurts later, he finally shot a couple more normal loads that landed on the smooth floor with splats that were utterly ignored as Shepard rested his forehead against the wall of the shower, all sexual tension utterly drained from his muscular frame. In his mind's eye he watched Liara's post-orgasmic motions.

* * *

_Liara's Apartment, Ilium, January 25, 3871_

After she'd rode out her high (with three cocks plunging into you and pleasuring you, it took a while for her climax to end) Liara mentally ordered the Hallucination Johns to pull out of her before rolling languidly onto what was probably the only part of her bed not stained by her juices, the part near the center. With but a thought the Hallucinations vanished in puffs of psychic energy and Liara reached for the pillow that was on the side of the bed she never used, the side always subconsciously designated as John's. She hugged it to her chest and sobbed bitterly, wishing that John hadn't died, but even more that she hadn't lost that opportunity. After exhausting her tears, Liara T'Soni climbed languidly off the foot of her bed, feeling utterly relaxed, all tension gone, took an actual shower and began putting her usual work clothes, her Aeon Medium Armour, on.

* * *

_Shepard's Quarters, CSC Normandy, January 25, 3871_

Shepard shook his head to clear it of the image of Liara putting her armour on and began to put his own armour on, it was time to get to work, first, he needed to go down and talk to Legion, see if the Geth was done building consensus yet. Then he would talk to Samara about whatever it was she wanted to talk about.

* * *

A/N: 17K words, longest chapter I've ever written, and over 10K of it is smut, new record for me, just hope it wasn't too weird, the smut with Shepard and Liara, that is.

If anyone wants to yell at me that that was too much smut or too long a chapter, please remember they believe it to all be their dream. Well, they'll have a gigantic surprise/mystery waiting when they actually do enter Union again after the Broker.

Also, sorry I didn't reveal the vehicle specifically, but I left a huge-ass hint… THERE IS STILL TIME TO PUT IN YOUR GUESS IF YOU HAVEN'T DONE SO ALREADY!


	31. Legend of the ArdatYakshi

A/N: OHO Now we'll have some BIG changes… Remember: Morinth is the Mirala uses with those she feels uncomfortable around.

I know the shared dream was kind of confusing, but it is in fact plot-critical. The hint I put in was NOT needing knowledge of SupCom, merely the list of unit names I provided.

**I HAVE POSTED AN IMAGE OF THE FIRST NORMANDY ON DEVIANTART**, it is not actual colour but it was the best I could pull off with assembling the screenshot pieces from SupCom Wiki, my computer is too crappy to run FA on more than lowest graphics, so… I hope it's not too bad, gives you a general idea of what it looks like.

* * *

Chapter 31: Legend of the Ardat-Yakshi

_AI Core, CSC Normandy, January 25, 3871_

_I wonder why my mind gave Liara a Hallucination ability, that's typical of Protoss High Templar and other powerful psionics, or Protoss Sentry units, though even they require significant energy to pull it off…_ John thought as he entered the AI Core. Seeing the Geth he had been looking for, he walked over "So, Legion, what do you think of our land vehicle?" Shepard crossed his arms over his chest and smirked.

Legion seemed to think for a moment before stating "Consensus among the 1183 Programs Aboard this platform has been achieved at a general level, no specifics yet."

Shepard frowned "Why?"

Legion shrugged in his armour "General consensus includes terms such as 'large', 'tough', 'overpowered against non-Coalition gear' and 'The above were understatements'. EDI supplied the final statement. Internal Programs are currently… agreeing to disagree on the specific terms. This platform has an inquiry."

John tilted his head "What is it, Legion?"

"Are the words 'OLD FAITHFUL' painted on the outside of the Disintegrator Pulse Laser of every Loyalist T3 Siege Assault Bot? Also, why did we choose a Loyalist instead of a Harbinger or an Othuum, both of which the Restorer can pick up?"

Shepard facepalmed "Doc Brackman said my mother painted the words herself, starting with some input in the form of the Faith part from Benezia." His eyes widened as he figured out exactly what Hannah Shepard and Benezia T'Soni had meant by putting the words there, and why Hannah had chosen a Loyalist to put on the Normandy as a land vehicle. "For the Loyalist problem, Harbingers and Othuums are slower and we can't apply full upgrade options or they'd be too heavy. Is there anything else you'd like to know, Legion?"

"Last we knew, Benezia T'Soni was confirmed killed in the destruction of the Peak 15 Hot Labs on Noveria, along with her entire then-current retinue." Legion said "You refer to her as the one to have painted 'Faith' onto the Loyalist."

"We got her out alive, and then hid her for fear of treason trials." Shepard shrugged "She obviously used a rather wide paint brush, and biotics… my mother probably had to use her armour's QP Pack, anything else?"

The Geth shook his head "No."

Shepard nodded "Alright, talk later."

* * *

_Forward Starboard Observation, CSC Normandy, January 25, 3871_

"I am glad you came." Samara stated, getting up. Shepard smirked, thinking of how he'd been able to sprint, leap and do all sorts of things (cartwheels included) without pain (except when he'd leaped a bit too high and hit his head on the ceiling) for the first time since he went off suppressants. _I'm glad I came too, LOL_ he thought. She took a couple steps toward the observation window, real, transparent material that had armoured slats ready to close over it in combat. "I must ask for your help. That is not easy for me."

Shepard smirked some more _I knew there was a reason I'm holding off on the Reaper IFF test… other than the fact that there haven't been any more attacks and so we haven't had a chance to smash up at least one Collector Cruiser yet…_ "It's alright, just tell me what you need."

Samara glanced back at him over her right shoulder pad, she was wearing her old skin-tight armour instead of her usual, then again, it did work onboard ship, and there was very little that could kill the Normandy II before crewmembers could don armour "When we met on Ilium, I told you about a very dangerous person I was pursuing. Using the information you provided, I have located her. She's been going by the name 'Morinth', I'd like to apprehend her before she disappears again."

That sounded ominous…"How critical is this?"

Samara didn't turn back from the sea of stars she gazed into "Killing her has been my focus for four hundred years, it is the most important thing in my life and the reason I became a Justicar."

Shepard nodded, then thought of something "Didn't you say you'd wait until after the Collector mission?"

"I know where she is… right now. In a month, she may be gone, this is the best opportunity I've got." Samara stated matter-of-factly.

Shepard nodded again, noting the info in his memory "Where is she?"

"A nightclub called Afterlife, which seems a perfect place for her to hunt." Samara didn't look back at Shepard.

"Tell me about her."

"She is an Ardat-Yakshi, it is from a dead Asari dialect, it means 'demon of the night winds'. But that is mythology, she is simply a very dangerous woman who kills without mercy."

Shepard took a couple steps to stand beside Samara "So is an Ardat-Yakshi a special type of murderer?"

"Morinth suffers a rare genetic disorder, when she mates with you, there is no gentle melding of nervous systems. She overpowers yours, corrupts it, floods it, burns it out, and hemorrhages your brain. You end up a mindless shell, and soon after you are dead."

He frowned "So you hunt down these Asari because they're born with a genetic condition?"

"It manifests with maturity, when one is diagnosed, she is offered the chance to live in seclusion and comfort." Samara still gazed out at the field of stars, hanging seemingly motionless as the Normandy was sitting effectively still. "If she refuses, it shows her addiction to the ecstasy she gets from killing her mates, there is no redemption for such a person."

Shepard's teeth were pried apart from where they'd started grinding together at the sheer bullshit-ness of it all "They have to choose between prison and death?"

"It is an addictive condition, remember how adaptive we are, if Morinth doesn't want the addiction to go away, it won't."

"Can't she abstain?" Anyone with enough will could overcome anything, after all.

Samara turned to regard Shepard "Each encounter gives her strength, the effect is narcotic, the more she does it, the more she needs to do it. She will never stop… she can't."

John frowned "Why isn't this ever mentioned in Asari literature or art?"

Samara's torso turned back, but her head remained turned toward Shepard "When we were primitives, there was much fascination with the Ardat-Yakshi. Some cultures worshipped them as goddesses of destruction, especially as they were typically born from the unions among the strongest Asari… Now the Asari have a place in the galaxy." She looked toward the stars again "We don't wish this defect to be widely known. I personally know of only three existing today, though there are most likely a few more that I do not know of. Two of the ones I know chose a life of seclusion, the third ran."

Shepard nodded "Morinth."

"She ran, and I am sworn to kill her."

Shepard shook his head "I don't know that I blame her for running…"

Samara turned her head faster than she typically did when they talked "When she fled, she proved her addiction, she was not taking a great moral stand, she simply wants to keep killing… She is a tragic figure, but not a sympathetic one."

John nodded and frowned "Sounds rather dangerous then, but why would she be so hard to apprehend?"

Samara closed her eyes for a moment "Each time she kills she gains the experiences of her victim, becoming tougher, faster, smarter. Ardat-Yakshi, when their condition manifests, become hideously overpowered in their psychic abilities, some even manifesting psionics, they are, once fully manifest, roughly on par with the strongest other Asari out there, which me and my mate were classed among. She's been killing for four centuries… She confuses her victims, twists their feelings. They will do anything for her favour."

Shepard's frown was growing deeper by the word "We need to stop her."

Samara smiled "Thank you, Commander, there are no words to express what this means to me." Shepard nodded and was two armoured steps away when Samara spoke again "There is one thing more: This creature, this… monster, she is my daughter."

Shepard's eyes widened and he nearly stumbled in horrific realization of what that meant. Benezia's first mate, also one of her best friends that she'd spent her Maiden years rollicking around the galaxy with, had left with two of their kids after the eldest ran off. Samara had a child with the problem, who ran away. Benezia had been afraid Liara would turn out like her half-sisters did… and was relieved when he was still alive after their repeated Unions. He was back to where Samara stood so fast a breeze was actually stirred up by his movements and Samara blinked with the sudden gust of wind. "You said this is genetic, how many children do you have?"

"Three." Shepard's heart skipped a beat "And I personally know of three Ardat-Yakshi that exist today, it is as it seems. Morinth was always the wild one, she was happy and free, but selfish."

Shepard shook his head slowly and took a step closer, intending to clap the Justicar on the shoulder despite his hands trembling at the revelations stampeding through his head, being careful not to use his armour's strength though "I cannot imagine what this is like for you."

Samara took a step back, making his hand miss her shoulder, and shook her head, looking out to the stars again "I do not want pity, Shepard, I do not accept it. My daughter's condition is my fault, and my redemption lies in killing her… Do not pity me, simply understand my situation."

Shepard's hands were still shaking inside his gauntlets, though the gloves being locked in place made sure it wasn't showing "How did all this happen?"

"I spent my youth with my two best friends, on the move, adventuring, I killed people, mated with them, sometimes in threes or fours with my friends, or just danced the night away. I learned so much, experienced so much… Even in my Matron days, I toiled to invent, create, change, just as my best friends did, one went into internal politics while the other was mostly focused on advancing our place in the galaxy. None of us put much thought to that which typical Matrons thought of… until I got pregnancy urges, shortly after that, my Matriarch days came. I could finally sit back, back and enjoy my family, though our three-way relationship was rather unconventional…" She looked back toward space, closing here eyes for a moment "but in one moment, it was all taken away."

"It sounds terrible…" _And terribly familiar, could it really be…?_

"I sat in a med lab while a nearsighted doctor droned at me, and I learned that nothing was as I thought it would be." Samara sounded… sad? She turned her head toward Shepard again "I gave up all that I possessed, I own nothing, claim nothing, all my knowledge will die with me. Now… my purpose is to destroy my own children."

"Those moments change you…"

"And I've hundreds of years left to live with that… I say too much, forgive me." She bowed her head for a moment "Help me find my long lost daughter… and kill her."

Shepard nodded brusquely "We'll go find Morinth."

* * *

_Afterlife, Omega, January 25, 3871_

"What do you need?" Aria asked simply.

"An Asari fugitive is hiding out there, she's an Ardat-Yakshi, we need to find her."

Aria frowned deeply at the news "Come to think of it, nothing leaves a body quite as… empty as an Ardat-Yakshi does…" Her eyes widened as she realized exactly who that meant, someone near and dear to the young Asari that ran Omega.

"You haven't taken steps to kill her?" Samara, as she knew the Justicar must be now, the resemblance… Mirala had always talked about how much she looked like her mother, and Aria remembered now… oh she remembered.

She shrugged in false nonchalance "Why would I? She hasn't tried to get near me, and she's been cleaning house on Omega, like Archangel did, her last victim was one of the gang leaders around here that was getting a bit too frisky with some of the dancers… against their will. Good looking but good riddance, I was considering it anyways. Lived in the tenements near here, that's where I'd start looking."

"Thanks for the help." Shepard nodded curtly, rising to his feet.

"Good luck finding her, better luck catching her." Aria said, Shepard nodded and left. AS soon as he was gone, Aria reached for the comm. link she always had ready "Mirala? Yes, it's me, Aria, Samara's here."

"Good… it was about time for a showdown. Wish me luck." The Asari on the other side of the line sounded… at peace.

* * *

_Afterlife, Omega, January 25, 3871_

They hadn't found much in the apartment other than Morinth apparently having used drugs in addition to psychic domination, so they went to ask the dead man's neighbour, in this case an attractive brunette teenager and her even more attractive (eighty was still young in the Coalition, hell, Princess Rhianne was 120-something…) mother. The woman had immediately welcomed them after looking over and finding their equipment to be authentic Coalition gear.

"The bastard across the hall? He died a week ago." Nef, the teenager in question, apparently a sculptor by the creations littered around her apartment and the offers from various art museums in an open, full filing cabinet, responded while she dug through a box of her things. "No one cares about him, a lot of us around here hated him and his gang."

"Nef!" Her mother called from the kitchen, probably since she knew more than the girl did about gang politics and that headless snakes could still lash you pretty hard.

The girl ignored her mother's warning tone in her apparent naiveté. "The medics that came around said it was a brain hemorrhage, but I think it was a brain hemorrhage with a calibre associated with it, if you know what I mean." She looked up at the guests and winked.

Shepard nodded at the brunette rifling through her stuff, apparently looking for a purchase contract to some of her art. He noted all the buying art galleries were Cybran, Aeon or Seraphim, nowhere did he see UEF Blue…"We think he was murdered, and we're looking for the killer."

Nef froze, holding a contract with a small red Cybran logo in the corner. She glanced between Shepard and Samara fearfully "Are you… on Aria's side?"

Shepard shrugged "I'm here to help solve a murder in your neighbourhood, does it matter who sent me?" He gestured down at himself "Besides, only authorized Coalition Marines and people who've worked closely enough with the Coalition get to wear this armour."

"Right…" Nef muttered, looking back down at her contract before double-taking "Oh God! I'm sorry, I'm a bit scatter-brained sometimes… what do you want to ask?"

"Were you friendly with him? Did you know him well?"

Nef frowned "I think I said something earlier about hating him and the gang he led? Besides, I spend most of my off time…" She waved her arms around and Shepard decided to take some closer looks at the fabulous sculptures around the room if he had time. "I didn't take too much note of him, besides avoiding him, still, in the past couple weeks I heard him talking about an Asari, someone called Morinth. I was curious and started observing them more."

Samara nodded "I see…"

Nef continued while organizing her sale papers "I liked her, she kept dragging him out to clubs, out of the neighbourhood, so things got a bit more peaceful round here, and she gave him a good taste of the medicine his subordinates sold." She grinned ferociously at the thought. A slap of facepalming came from the kitchen, audible even over the cooking.

Shepard frowned "What kind of person was this Morinth?"

Nef shrugged, looking the Cybran Heavy armour up and down "Never met her, but the guy talked about her like she was a queen, you'd think there was no one else alive when he talked about Morinth."

Samara snorted "That sounds familiar."

Shepard frowned "Samara, does Morinth use drugs on her victims?"

The Justicar shook her head "She can control them through sheer will, the drugs are just a lifestyle. She loves the club, loves the bass, she's a hedonist."

"So this Morinth did kill him?" Nef asked as she scribbled down some notes.

Samara nodded "I will bring justice to the one that did this." Nef rolled here eyes without looking up at that.

"Did he hang out anywhere in particular?"

Nef shook her head while cross-referencing something "No, mostly operated from home, his cronies would come around every week or so for protection money. Then a week ago he started going to that VIP area of Afterlife. The change was kind of sudden, but he did less things and seemed less dangerous than he did before, good enough for me."

"What kind of a guy was he?"

"A small-time criminal, but the sort that really gets people riled…" Nef seemed to tremble with rage at that.

Samara frowned "Not like her… she likes going for the big bad guys, probably more useful experiences that way… She impresses with sophistication and sex appeal, then she strikes. The hunt and fake re-socialization of the incorrigible always seemed to hold special interest for her…"

Shepard's mouth was drawn into a thin line "Anyone who's hunted sapient life for four centuries warrants caution."

Samara nodded "Morinth speaks to you on many levels. Her body tells yours that she'll bring unimaginable ecstasy, her scent evokes emotions long hidden… Her eyes promise you things you were always scared to ask of another, her voice whispers to you after she is done speaking."

_Sounds familiar… too familiar_ "She sounds more like a highly evolved killer than a defective…"

Samara gestured about "The condition has always been part of my people, perhaps it is a way of preventing our strength from growing past what our bodies can handle that the children of the strongest are the most affected… runaway evolution toward strength until the condition stops it… Storming her den would be a mistake, she will have hundreds of escape routes planned. She will go to ground and hide for a decade or more, this is the closest I've been in decades…"

* * *

_Mirala's Suite, Omega, January 25, 3871_

For once in her long centuries of running, Mirala did NOT have an escape plan. She knew perfectly well that this would be the place for a reckoning. She had gotten her sisters to safety, killed several dozen higher-end criminals in her short stay here and of course drawn in and destroyed that one bastard that raped his across-the-hall neighbour's mother (Mirala couldn't deny the woman was in her prime and very attractive, but she would never prey on anyone who had done nothing wrong) then threatened the woman into silence, it was time for a confrontation. Of course, the thing that had first brought her attention to the scumbag was how none of the Asari dancers liked him very much, she could feel the annoyance coming off them in waves when he was present…

She sighed, it was time to go to Afterlife and scope out her next target, the next criminal, perhaps give them a bullet or two through the head with her Spectre Master Gear Sniper Rifle sometime?

* * *

_Nef's Apartment, Omega, January 25, 3871_

"So we have to lure her out." Shepard deadpanned over the squad comm.

She nodded "Exactly, Shepard, you read my mind." _Uh, usually only Aeon or Seraphim can do that…_ John thought. "Afterlife's VIP section seems her hunting ground on Omega, you must go there alone and unarmed."

Shepard raised his eyebrows "I'm going in, no guns, no armour, no backup?"

"I will be under active camo watching, Shepard, you will never be alone, this I swear" _No shit, no Cybran is ever alone, we can download data from the Network, provided we have a computer around, we can request data through our implants but the download cannot enter our brains, it must be routed elsewhere for safety._ "But you cannot barge in with guns and allies. Morinth is far too cagey, she'd simply disappear, this is a subtle, delicate act, trust me."

Shepard was deadpanning again "She'll come after me."

Samara nodded "You can draw Morinth out, she'll certainly flee if she catches sight of me, but she won't be able to resist a tasty morsel like you. You are an artist on the battlefield, you have the spark that attracts her, your power will draw her in."

He nodded "Time's wasting, let's get over there."

She agreed "Talk more once we're there."

Shepard and Samara shared a nod before Shepard looked down at the busy girl "You know, you should apply to get back into the Coalition, life there is so much better than here."

"Gone there, done that." The brunette shrugged "We're waiting for the application to be processed."

"Good luck, Nef, I'll be on the lookout for your work."

The girl nodded at the Marine "Thanks, you are?"

"Commander John Shepard, I'll be seeing your work." He smirked as he left a gaping girl behind, leaving the apartment.

* * *

_Afterlife, Omega, January 25, 3871_

"You must go in alone, Morinth will be watching, like any predator, she is cautious, you must pique her interest enough that she will approach you. When you are face to face, subtly encourage her to invite you to her apartment, I'll follow discreetly and when you are alone, I'll spring the trap. Know this: until I get there, you will be in mortal peril, she will plan to inflict horrors on you, if you're not careful, you'll want her to." Samara told him through his comm. neckband.

_The only person I'd ever be willing to have inflict "horrors" on me has a name that starts with Liara and ends with T'Soni…_ "How should I spark her interest without speaking?"

"She is attracted to courage or suicidal bravery, hurt someone in defence, she'll like it, starting a fight annoys her, a lot. Show skill at working smoothly through the crowd, she'll be intrigued. She'll want you the moment she sees you, the rest is overcoming her caution."

"How do I convince her to take me home?" _Never thought I'd ask anyone that about their daughter… except Benezia if I fail too badly at getting Liara back._

"She admires strength, directness and vigour, modesty, chivalry or meekness frustrate and bore her." So Renegade then… "Violence stirs her up, you've killed, she'll like that."

"Getting her alone and falling under her sway will require careful timing" _And Liara to be in a good mood when she finds out, or I'm mincemeat._

Samara nodded and clapped his shoulder "I will be near and I'll come for you, trust me as I trust and honour you…"

He nodded "Anything else that can help with Morinth?"

"She knows Hallex well, or so the guy's journal told us. It also mentioned Vaenia, a vid about glamorous women, and a note said she liked the Elcor artist Forta. That's all we know right now."

He nodded "Let's get started."

"Good luck, Shepard, happy hunting, and Shepard? Thank you, I do not share this burden lightly, you're the only one I trust enough to share it with."

* * *

"Hey, do you know where to get tickets for Expel 10? I heard this amazing Asari say they were her favourite band. I want… I just want whatever she wants, I got to find tickets! Expel 10 is playing tomorrow!"

Shepard was tempted to punch the man for how desperate and whiney he sounded, unlike a typical man born of UEF heritage, which from his accent was his ancestry (note that Aeon and many Cybran men will do anything to please their love interests, but UEF men tended to have a "I'll do my best, it might not be much" mindset, possible inferiority complex?). "What sort of music do they play?"

"They're a sensory band, like they crawl into you and make you feel things, and this Asari digs them like you wouldn't believe. I could score way out of my league, you know, you gotta help me." Shepard's eyes narrowed dangerously at the "score" part. If this man only wanted relief for his sexual needs, he could either use his own hand or Shepard would remove his equipment manually and painfully.

"She sounds interesting, is she here?" If she was, someone would get a warning as to a certain human man's less than honourable intentions.

"She was here a couple days ago, talking about the band. She's here a lot. When she comes back, I'm going to have tickets."

Shepard was feeling rather… annoyed… at a human man talking about an Asari, any Asari, in a fashion including the term "score" anywhere in the speech "I'm ready to punch someone, and you're too close…" He cracked his knuckles, and the man backed down in fear.

"Relax, relax! It's cool… I'll step off." He held his hands up in a placating gesture. Shepard snorted and walked past him, wading his way into the crowd effortlessly, having been briefed on confident, attractive nightclub behaviour by checking the Network.

"Come on, baby, I can pay, I'm a good tipper too." A distinctly Turian voice was saying. The Asari he was talking to flipped him off in response before the Turian added "Playing hard to get? Give it up baby, I'm sold."

"Leave me alone!" The Asari yelled at the Turian.

The Turian shook his greyish-scaled head "Don't be like that, I got creds, we'll go back to my place, I got simple tastes."

As he stalked up silently behind the Turian, he noted the Asari had a spotted pattern on her head crest, most likely painted on by the regularity of the pattern. It seemed to be glow-in-the-dark, an interesting style, almost like Cybran circuits in telling any lover just where you were and where to kiss/nibble. "Back off, asshole, I'm a dancer, not a hooker!"

The Turian actually reached for her, though she swatted the hand away "You got a mouth on you. I'll enjoy watching you use it."

"The lady asked you to step away." Shepard growled.

The Turian raised an eyebrow "You want in on this transaction? Bet she'll like two… I don't mind, just like good times." He shrugged before his eyes and mandibles widened as Shepard grabbed him and swung him up and over his head before smashing him into the floor, being careful not to let him land head-first. The Turian actually bounced with how hard he hit the floor before Shepard kicked him, using the advantage of Turian's strong bone structure against him as his 250-pound mass went flying across the VIP section of Afterlife before hitting a wall and sliding down it with a solid thud.

"Good times are over." Shepard dusted his hands off in disgust.

The dancer smiled at him "Thanks for that… security was asleep." She walked off after that, and Shepard moved on in the crowd.

* * *

Stopping a "Nosy Journalist Kill", intimidating a Krogan, charming a bartender, and dancing with an Asari (who he was not familiar with) was not a fun series of tasks. Shepard's nerves were rather frayed with irritation at doing so many Renegade things as opposed to his usual Paragon tendencies (in his opinion, dispensing righteous justice was not truly Renegade).

"Good cred-hunting tonight, we'll hit them in the alley, so long as it's not one of Aria's people, we're good." One Turian said to another.

"We gotta get enough creds to keep Hink off our backs." His partner replied.

Shepard snorted as he approached the would-be muggers "A pair of sad losers who think they're something, and are about to find out they're not."

The Turians stood up from the couches "Who's going to show us that? You?"

The closer one snorted "Human thinks he's tough."

Shepard's facial circuits pulsed "Tougher than you." The moment the closer Turian tried to lay a finger on him Shepard locked his arm before delivering a hard uppercut to him and setting him spinning in the air before letting him drop to the ground, rolling away and moaning in pain as Shepard parried a blow form the other charging Turian before giving his balls the same treatment the first Turian's chin had received. He snorted as the Turian passed out from the pain.

* * *

Mirala's eyes narrowed as she watched the new face, this Cybran didn't seem like the rest of the patrons. He had the air of an experienced killer, and kept intimidating and fooling people around like any typical bully out for a fun night, other than helping the Asari dancer, that is. Maybe he was a member of the Seven Hand who got away from the persecution? Brackman had told her to keep an eye out for those, and she'd already killed a few of them since she left Cybran Space, with her guns of course, melding wasn't good for her mental powers. The air this man had, however, was different, dark somehow, vengeful, someone who could cause a lot of pain, a lot of chaos… someone dangerous. The dark side of herself was inexplicably attracted to the man, especially the way his eyes flashed and the small amount of his scent wafted over by the power of her mind. He was a true alpha male, from his actions, scent and way of doing things, and that appealed to her dark side. Also, there was something else… she vaguely remembered something about a Justicar teaming up with a Cybran in the news recently… this may well be it, it was time for a confrontation. She had already sniped over a dozen of the smaller criminals tonight outside Afterlife, so she had done her last bit…for now.

It was time to make a move "My name is Morinth, I've been watching you, you're the most interesting person in this place. I've got a booth over here in the shadows, why don't you come sit with me?" She gestured over to the booth overlooking Omega, the booth from which she'd sniped tonight. She'd stashed her rifle away already, in readiness for this moment and the inevitable confrontation that would come with it. After they sat down, Mirala started, though secretly dreading the inevitable moment when the final, terrible confrontation between her mother and herself would come, she knew it would sooner or later, and now was the best time, but… "Some nights I come here and there's no one interesting to talk to, sometimes, there's just one person. Tonight, it's you, why is that?"

Shepard was surprised at exactly how much Morinth resembled Samara. Hell, she could easily pass for Samara if she needed to. "I know what I like."

Mirala raised an eyebrow. It was always interesting talking to Cybrans, she'd learned from her debates with Dostya back when Rila and Falere were still undergoing medical checkups after she broke them out "Do you?"

"What do you think of the music here?"

"Dark rhythms, violent pulses, it stirs something primitive in me." Something she had fought against all her life, even more so after she'd discovered exactly what killing by melding did to her, her main reason for clubbing was to challenge herself, build up resistance, like she had been doing for centuries "What about you?"

"I'm curious about a band called Expel 10."

"They get in my head and tear at it" "it" here being her carefully constructed mental barriers to ward off the dark side of her personality, the raw, primitive hunger for life, the need for physicality that came with a fully manifest Ardat-Yakshi, one that had gone through her first kill. She had originally just been like any other Asari, but now… her life was a constant war. "They're in concert soon, maybe we should go together. You can lose yourself in the music there… though there are ways to enhance that." She had personally never taken Hallex, but when she felt vindictive she would typically give the criminals she hunted the drug to give them a taste of their own medicine.

"What do you think of Hallex?"

Mirala smiled grimly, this person was getting even more suspicious in her mind, knowing exactly what to say, so be it. "It slithers through my soul." That was true, as it merely passed through her to others, others who deserved it. "Seems like we share some interests…"

Shepard leaned forward, nodding, "Know anything about art?"

"It can be beautiful and terrible all at once, speaking to the brightest and darkest places within me… what about you?"

"Do you know the artist Forta?" Shepard asked.

"I didn't think anyone around here knew him, he's sublime." She had studied the subliminal messaging that was part of his art form in hopes of understanding her own Dominate ability better. "Art comes in many varieties, I've seen sculptures sitting in galleries that were more powerful than vids, and vice versa." It was one of the good things about hunting that particular gang head, his neighbour was one of the best sculptors Mirala had seen works of in a long time… and she'd wanted to get an autograph… perhaps in the next life.

"Do you know Vaenia?"

"My favourite, the two actresses on it are so glamorous…" Mirala smiled sadly, the love scenes, unlike most Asari X-rated films, actually involved a real plot and real Union, something she could never have as an Ardat-Yakshi. A lot of fans had been enthralled, and similar numbers heartbroken, when the two actresses revealed their relationship and were bonded.

He smirked "I liked it too." In fact, Liara and John had watched it together, right before what was the inevitable when a couple hopelessly in love watched an X-rated film started happening. "I've travelled all over the Galaxy."

"It changes you, doesn't it?" Mirala found this person rather… fascinating.

Shepard shrugged "Real travel means going to dangerous places."

Mirala nodded "Where you see and do things most people can't imagine." She had seen lots, such as exactly how far her mother had fallen, how dark the Justicar order truly was, though the Justicars themselves were more or less righteous, the support infrastructure was utterly decayed… and her mother was too blinded by the fact that she killed people with her mind, as if Samara didn't, to see the rotten nature of her precious Order.

Shepard agreed, as it seemed Morinth was being drawn in… "Yes."

"When I travel, I find myself drawn to dark, dangerous places." Those were the places most in need of fighting fire with fire, of destroying the corrupt, the evil, and of course, for her, redemption.

"Violent places?"

Mirala shrugged "Violence is the surest expression of power." It was true, she had understood that after an incident where she had thought Aria, barely a Maiden at the time, had been killed… it had been an enlightening moment when they met again on Omega.

"Violence is a means to an end, power is that end."

Mirala thought of something she should do before her confrontation with her mother: Spread the truth. This Cybran, Shepard, looked to be strong enough to hold her off long enough to upload her memories to his Network "Do you want to get out of here? My apartment is nearby, and I want you alone."

Shepard was somewhat reminded of how Liara used to drag him off somewhere private, but with two major differences: Liara didn't want to kill him, and he loved Liara, only Liara.

* * *

Samara followed at a safe distance, ensuring Morinth wouldn't pick her psychic presence up. She could register psychic signatures, just as the other two of their little trio could before she left them, and she was pretty sure her daughters could too.

* * *

_Mirala's Apartment, Omega, January 25, 3871_

Shepard was inspecting the bottle when Morinth talked to him "Have a Hallex if you want, but wouldn't you rather have all your senses clear and sharp right now? I certainly do."

Mirala was thinking along different lines than he'd probably expect, as Shepard nodded to her. _If either of our minds are clouded, I wouldn't have a chance of giving him the truth without plunging in and destroying him before he could at least upload it to the Network._

Shepard looked around some more "How did you get a Spectre Master Gear pistol?"

"I got it from an interesting source, loved when the opponent realizes she has no chance and that she is going to die" for her crimes, that is. Mirala liked having superior gear, it had allowed her to break her sisters out of prison.

Shepard nodded "Hmm… what's this statue?"

"A gift from a suitor." He had been a local crime lord on some space station, tried to pursue her "The statue's got more personality than he did, still, impressed" more like annoyed "me enough he got what he wanted" and deserved for his sins. "It didn't end the way he wanted."

"And the chess set?"

"I love any game where you opponent can believe he is about to win… right before you kill him." Mirala said, thinking back to how someone had gotten the drop on her with a biotic damper and nearly raped her before she destroyed his mind, it had been her second kill, when she had just run away from home, wandering listlessly around some decrepit space station. Shepard came over to her, looking down at her almost expectantly, and she felt a momentary flash of irritation that he seemed to only be looking into her eyes, not even glancing at her body, but she attributed it to him being Cybran, they were notorious for being able to keep focus. "I love clubs, people, movement, heat. I can still hear the bass, like the drums of a great hunt, out for your blood. But here, it's muted, and you're safe, is that what you want, Shepard?"

"People feel safest before they die." He stated simply.

"True, true, you are wise, Shepard… I've never understood the obsession many have for the illusion of safety, I much prefer the cold truth, even if that truth could destroy you." She had been a wreck for over a year after she ran away, after her first lover died. She settled herself in Shepard's lap "Independence over submission, I think we share that, you and I…"

"You compare us, yet you are nowhere near my league." For one, even though her skin was more blue than grey, it had dark freckles, he preferred light blue freckles where applicable. Second, her eyes were too grey, not slowly going back to a rich blue. Third, her jaw was too angular… in shorter words, she wasn't Liara.

Mirala nodded appreciatively, perhaps he would have the strength she would need to not destroy him but instead allow him to upload her memories to the Network, allow Commander Shepard to understand her cause and back her when it came to trying to make peace with her mother for the last time. "So strong… I need this." _Yeah, to make sure he survives long enough to upload the data, sorry, Doc Brackman, but this has to get out to the Nation before the knowledge dies with me…_ She moved herself to sit next to him, draping her arm around his tense shoulders before initiating the meld "Look into my eyes, tell me you want me. That you'd kill for me, anything I want…"

* * *

A/N: Be on the lookout for the spin-off fic, _The Ardat-Yakshi Chronicles_, it will be short but contain some back-story as well as (eventually) my first fluff attempts that involve people other than Shepard and Liara. It will come most likely after, maybe before, I post the next chapter.


	32. A Crisis of Faith

A/N: To anyone who's yet to figure it out, John and James look like default Male Shepard. Hannah Shepard's description is in Ch 3 of Supreme Redemption and Jane Shepard, Hannah's older sister who has yet to enter the story, is the default Female Shepard appearance (yes the redhead).

I KNOW THE AEON WINGS I PUT ON DEVIANTART Don't quite fit, but they're the straightest wing-like things I could find that looked wide enough. Hence I basically slapped them on.

I HAVE POSTED **_THE ARDAT-YAKSHI CHRONICLES_**, for some reason the Hyphen does not work…

* * *

Chapter 32: A Crisis of Faith

_Mirala's Apartment, Omega, January 25, 3871_

Shepard was busy reeling from the incredible familiarity of his firewall alarms, and the truth he witnessed to answer her for the next few moments as his mind processed the truth. The horrific truth about the Order of the Justicar, about the Ardat-Yakshi as a group and most importantly about the one woman he loved with all his being overwhelmed him, rendering his paralyzed, speechless.

Mirala was startled at how she didn't even have to fight her compulsion to kill, before probing slightly and coming to a realization that shook the tenements of her existence. Cybran firewalls could hold off psychic intrusion, including hers. Her mind was in turmoil as she realized that her father had given birth herself, becoming mother to another daughter… another of her kind.

"Don't count on it." Shepard ground out through the thundering herd of revelations stampeding through his head. He would not allow himself to be mind-raped anymore, this was betrayal! Only one woman had the right to mind-rape him anytime she felt like, and Morinth… Mirala was NOT that woman!

Mirala broke the meld and almost threw herself backwards from the Cybran "But you… ah, I see, my mother's found herself a helper." She shook her head sadly as Samara stalked into the apartment, Mirala rose from the couch in time to be slammed into the window, making a spider-web crack pattern as she hit the glass. She smirked and wrenched her head around "Mother."

"Do not call me that!" It was the first time Shepard had heard real fury in Samara's voice as she slugged Morinth again with her biotics.

Mirala tipped her head back down from where it had been pushed back by Samara "I can't choose to stop being your daughter, Mother."

Samara put more pressure into the biotics crushing Morinth against the glass "You made your choice long ago."

Something snapped in Mirala, she'd had enough of these accusations… she gathered he own biotics and blasted her way out by using an ability she had come to term "Explode", sending Samara stumbling back "My only crime was being born with the gifts you gave me!" She lifted the Justicar into the air before hitting her with a sofa that Samara batted aside right before she was hit by a mass effect field that slammed her to the ground.

Samara rolled and blasted back with her own mental powers, knocking Morinth to the floor as the older Asari jumped back to her feet. Morinth was also back up in a flash and lashed out with her own mental powers, clashing with her mother's between them as she snarled "the Justicar Order, created to destroy my kind, is as corrupt as the Batarian Syndicates! I am the genetic destiny of the Asari drive for increasing power, but they are not ready to admit it, and so I must die…"

Mirala watched as the woman who looked less like her mother and more like a genetic source for a cloning project to produce her growl before hissing at her daughter "You are a disease to be purged, nothing more."

The Ardat-Yakshi noted Shepard was slowly getting to his feet, and knew he would be the tipping point of this conflict… her power had slowly decreased from killing by meld, hence why she preferred sniping usually, hence she could not simply outfight her mother. "I'm as strong as she is, let me join you!"

"I am already sworn to help you, Shepard, let us end this!" Samara called, both Asari were noticeably straining with effort now…

Shepard would have unhesitatingly chosen to give Morinth… no, Mirala was her name, a nice uppercut, but… he knew the truth now, also, he was rather busy dodging the furniture that orbited the two Asari… It seemed the Order of the Illuminate and that of the Justicar were similar in more than just concept. "Samara…" His circuits, instead of pulsing seemingly randomly, now started as one from where they disappeared into his hairline and the slightly brighter orange pulses scrolled forward in formation from there "there are some things you just don't, and in your current state won't understand." His circuits finished pulsing, having reached their ends, as he yanked Samara's arm back for long enough to let Mirala slam her mother with a Stasis.

Morinth gasped for breath a couple times from the sheer exertion before starting "Thank you, Shepard, my mother is as powerful as she is hateful… it'll take a lot of work to convince her you are telling the truth, and I fear she may be well beyond redemption now." She shook her head sadly and closed her eyes, standing in front of Samara's frozen form. There was still a look of indignation on the older Asari's face, and her eyes were following Mirala, who scratched her crest before turning to Shepard "You'll need to figure out a way to tell her the truth without giving her a heart attack…"

Shepard raised an eyebrow "Asari can get heart attacks?"

Mirala shrugged "No idea where the term is from, but supposedly it's a condition common in more primitive civilizations involving clogged arteries and some heart muscle dying from lack of oxygen, mostly from atherosclerosis, build-up of cholesterol deposits on artery walls, which is impossible for Asari, Quarians or Humans now. Still, you need to figure out a way to convince her of the truth, let her see my memories, make her understand."

"Alright… you have a computer terminal?" Morinth gestured to one and Shepard smirked. "Good, here's to hoping Miranda incorporated the melding compatibility hardware in my upgrades…" He sent up the uplink to the Cybran Network and designated the computer terminal in question as the download terminal. After successfully obtaining the instructions for the use of the hardware, he engaged it and grabbed Samara's head just as she began to unfreeze from Stasis.

"Damn it, she's breaking through, do it quickly, Shepard… Shepard?" Mirala strained to keep the stasis field on her mother until finally she encountered no more struggling and shut the field off. Shepard had his forehead pressed to Samara's and his eyes closed, an intense look of concentration on his face as Samara's eyes moved from side to side unseeingly, as if trying to reconcile the memories she was being shown with her own beliefs. Finally, she slumped, sighing dejectedly, and Shepard broke the meld.

It had been the most painful experience of Shepard's short life besides dying, intrusion into a resisting victim was like putting his brain through a thresher. Then again, maybe even a Thresher Maw's digestive system would have been kinder, at least it would be a quick death. It was like he was being stabbed and burnt everywhere at once, but it was worth it. Samara now knew exactly what everything had been like from Mirala's perspective. She had needed to open her eyes, to understand, he had just enabled her to.

What she did that was practically the opposite though, she slumped forward limply in Shepard's arms, nearly falling to her knees. She would have if Shepard hadn't caught her and held her up. Mirala rushed over and helped Shepard move her Mother to a comfortable position on the couch.

* * *

_I must be dreaming, having either a wonderful fantasy—that Mirala had never been Morinth the psycho killer—or a horrific nightmare—that the Justicar Order is a lie—Wait, if I'm dreaming, why am I actually feeling the couch and a headache? And WHY THE HELL IS MORINTH WATCHING ME WITH A CONCERNED EXPERSSION?_ She catapulted upright on the couch, realizing that this was the fourth time Mirala had done something to make her faint. The first was the pregnancy test that had told her and her two bond-mates they were expecting a new addition to the family. The second was Mirala being diagnosed with her condition, the third successfully running away from home, from Thessia, and the last just now.

The younger Asari winced "Mother…"

Shepard nodded "Agreed, you were a bit loud when you screamed the last part, thinking out loud?"

Samara gaped, then slumped back into the couch again, completely boneless "It's not a dream, is it?"

Mirala twiddled her blue thumbs and shook her head sadly, swinging her legs under her chair like a child, biting her lip before answering "No."

Samara sighed "I was afraid of that… things are so much more complicated now…" She sighed again, then sat up and threw her legs over the edge of the couch, running a shaking hand through her head crest "I'm ready to leave this place, are you two?"

Shepard shook his head no "There are a few problems we need to address first, Samara, Mirala."

Mirala frowned "And what would those be? I join your crew, call Doc Brackman back to tell him we're good, and that's that…"

Shepard looked rather glum at that "Yes… except most of the crew still think you're a psychopathic killer."

Mirala rubbed her face tiredly "You always had a propensity to spread mostly untrue rumours about me, Mother, even before I was diagnosed."

Shepard frowned "Mostly?"

"Well… I did go on a killing spree ONCE, when the colony I was hiding on got attacked by Batarian slavers, killed every one of them I could find with their own weapons, plain old gunfire, overdosing the bastards on drugs, setting the mind-subduing implants to an overloaded setting so it would eat its way through their brain before stopping, slitting their throats or other parts off with their own knives, even used farming equipment on some of them, tractor ploughs are very effective against enemies in stasis, and fuel barrels make excellent bowling devices, explosive bowling devices." Samara and Shepard shared a significant look "What? Don't tell me you haven't learned to improvise, mother, I still remember you imitating you and Dad's other bond-mate's ways by choking one of the few friends I made after I ran away to death with his own pelvis, how you ripped it out I don't even want to know…"

"Mordin will like her, farming equipment…" Shepard said simply, Samara nodded. "I'm guessing you'll need to blend in otherwise when on missions, won't you?"

Mirala snorted "No worries, if I remember right all Coalition Armours have fully enclosed helmets and such, besides, I learned to pose as you a long time ago, Mother, and I'm a dead ringer for you… it had its advantages, namely my getting off Thessia in the first place, though come to think of it I may have subconsciously used Dominate too…" She scratched her fringe and grinned nervously.

Shepard looked between the two and found it was true, he could NOT tell them apart by their faces, then he looked over their attributes, same bust size and shape, waist, hips, legs, arms, everything. They might as well have been clones. "You didn't need to use Dominate, Mirala, you two look like clones."

Mirala quirked her lips "Dad always did say it looked like I came from a cloning vat instead of Mom, few can tell us apart at all, none can physically."

Shepard nodded "Good, Samara, do you want to talk about what happened?"

Samara looked up at the man who'd shown her the truth "What do you think I will say? What can I say? The purpose to which I dedicated my life was just proven false to me… There are no words, I will try another time, for now, show mercy on a broken old warrior and let us leave."

John nodded "Let's move… we've got to tell the crew some news anyways."

* * *

_Forward Starboard Observation i.e. Samara's Quarters, CSC Normandy, January 25, 3871_

"Gah! Hurk! Ugh… Oof!" The noises of discomfort emanating from the bathroom were almost scary.

Shepard looked at Samara in concern, she was still wearing her old red armour, the other non-Marine armour she had… "Are you sure she is not stabbing herself in there? OR is the stuff just too tight?"

Samara shook her head, frowning "No, also she and I are the exact same physically, so I don't see how she wouldn't fit…"

"Alright I guess… So, Samara, mind telling me what Mirala meant when she talked about you strangling a man with his own pelvis?"

"I witnessed one of my bond-mates, the one who was more interested in advancing the place of Asari-kind, doing something similar when we were young and I got myself and my other future bond-mate captured and tortured. She came in, beat the whole crew of slavers unconscious with their own femurs and then stabbed one guard through the heart with one of his own ribs, broke another's neck with his own hands that she tore off, and beat the rest to death with their comrades' spines, wielding one in each hand."

"Now why does that sound familiar?" Shepard wandered out loud before a loud slam interrupted them.

The bathroom door had opened, and Mirala stalked out, one could almost sense the storm cloud above her head, following her as she walked into the Observation Deck in her mother's black skin-tight armour. "Your fashion sense is abominable, Mother."

"How…" Samara started.

Mirala almost blew up "HOW? I'LL SHOW YOU!" She gestured wildly at the heels "What's with wearing high heels into combat? That's madness! Also, this cleavage?" John averted his eyes as Mirala pointed at the space between her pale blue and rather large breasts. "Anyone could just stick a knife in there, or maybe a bullet! And what's with this?" She twisted her shoulders to on side and her breasts stretched elastically with the skin-tight material "This thing stretches my tits for Goddess's sake! How the hell does this provide any protection? Dancers wear stuff that shows less skin!" She settled down a bit "I'll wear this ultra-fetishist uniform, but don't expect me to be overjoyed by it…"

Shepard finally burst out in laughter, her daughter had called Samara out on the one thing no one else had dared call her out on… And she'd done it in public! "Alright, Mirala, time to choose your Coalition Armour and weapons…"

While they walked toward the Cargo Bay, Mirala took some time to bang her head on the wall at Samara's explanation "High heels are highly effective" The pun had gotten a nasty groan "At kicking people in the balls and for stepping on people. As for the stopping part, it's more distraction than actual stopping of rounds, I leave that for either the agility this armour offers or my shields/barriers."

* * *

_Bridge, CSC Normandy, January 25, 3871_

"I'm glad things worked out, Commander, I was worried you'd dump Samara for some soul-sucker with a death fetish, all lithe and sexy and…" Joker never got to finish, so busy was he gaping at what he thought was a double image of Samara, though the one on the left of Shepard had a black uniform instead of the reddish one.

"Greetings, Morinth or, if you prefer, Mirala." EDI stated. Joker blinked. Mirala nodded at the blue ball avatar of the ship's resident AI after baring her teeth and hissing at Joker.

"How… how…" Joker's hands were waving about while his mouth opened and shut like a fish. Mirala giggled, Samara sighed and rubbed her forehead, and Shepard looked up as if wishing something up there would take mercy on him.

"There are some memories I'll need to put up on the holoprojectors, meeting in the conference room in ten minutes, all hands. EDI, I trust you can handle the ship?" Shepard looked at the glowing blue ball.

It bobbed in a nod "Of course, Shepard, don't be gone too long though, I miss Joker when he's not around." Joker chuckled nervously at that.

* * *

_John Shepard's Quarters, CSC Normandy, January 25, 3871_

Shepard collapsed in a boneless heap on the bed as soon as he reached it, having showered already and set his armour to self-cleaning while doing so. He shuddered as the thoughts that had been on the back burner returned with a vengeance. "Mirala, are Ardat-Yakshi fertile?"

Mirala and Samara, having been called up to Shepard's quarters, both wore identical frowns at the question, opening their mouths in identical expressions until Samara closed hers and let her daughter speak "We cannot have children, in fact, we cannot experience Union like all other Asari can, our mates always die in the process, so we cannot have children."

Shepard stared up at the ceiling blankly, feeling the dream of him and Liara with two or three little blue children running around shatter before his eyes "In theory, if the mate survived, could an Ardat-Yakshi bear children?"

Samara spoke next "Why do you ask, Shepard? Don't you already have a girlfriend? It's not like you're planning to court Mirala or one of her sisters… that part's not even possible, they're locked up in the Justicar Order's prisons…"

"I broke them out." Mirala stated plainly, drawing a gasp from Samara.

"How did you do that?" The Justicar asked, eyes wide.

"I went to Brackman for help, after the Order blew up the convention grounds the survivors of your raid on that town centuries ago, I was looking for help, and after contact with the Coalition, I found a place to get that help. Eventually they found where Rila and Falere were held, and equipped me with the gear I would need to break them out, a modified set of armour with Coalition-type capabilities but which looked like typical Council Space armour, and a set of Spectre Master Gear plus a Coalition-issue grenade bandolier for demolition work. I'll tell you the story later…" She turned toward Shepard "Shepard, why did you ask about Ardat-Yakshi having children?"

"I realized when you melded with me, tried to start a Union, that the firewall alarms that went off in my brain was exactly the same as when I had Union with Liara."

"This Liara is an Ardat-Yakshi as well?" Samara frowned. "What family is she from?"

Mirala supplied the answer "Liara, if this is the same one I'm thinking of, is the daughter of Benezia T'Soni. In other words, mother, she's my half-sister."

Samara's mouth opened and closed several times in shock that one of her bond-mates had given birth to yet another Ardat-Yakshi before Shepard pressed for answers "So, Mirala, my questionw was simple, can Ardat-Yakshi bear children?"

Mirala's response was to rip the mattress from the bed and slam it, and Shepard under it, against the floor before sitting on the upturned and squirming mattress "If you want my baby half-sister just for children then you are sorely mistaken, loser!" She bellowed as she punched the mattress that Shepard was trying to escape (her biotics were holding it down on him rather painfully).

"Mirala, I doubt he means that… I think it's more of a matter of how he could ever tell her they couldn't have children together." Samara managed to coax her daughter off the mattress and get her to deactivate her biotics.

Shepard dragged himself out from under the mattress and tipped it back onto his bed before running a hand through his short hair and sighing "Samara thinks correctly, Mirala. Liara and I shared dreams of marriage, old age, and lots of little blue children… As Samara said when telling me about you, this is the moment in which it was all taken away, when I learned that nothing was as I thought it would be. I don't know how best to explain it to her…" He looked up pleadingly from where he sat on the floor like a dejected child.

Mirala crouched down next to him and patted his back "There is no best way, you'll just have to be honest to her, and make sure she doesn't do anything stupid like try to kill herself or break up with you for your own good. Actually, you should probably warn James, whoever he is…"

"My twin brother, acts like me a lot." Shepard supplied, getting up and sitting on the now rather messy bed.

"…Oh, well then Tali's a lucky girl then, to find such a nice, handsome guy…enough about that, anyways, I heard her mentally yelling at herself that James deserved someone better than her, someone he could touch without risk at any time, someone who could give him children someday." At Shepard's questioning look she pointed at her head "Psionics, remember? The most powerful Asari have some access while we Ardat-Yakshi have a lot more, but it dwindles with increasing kills, since killing with melds actually decreases our power. When we first start feeling amorous for another, our power swells to epidemic proportions, the exact measure of which is based on how good we were before, for example, me and my sisters were all powerful, so I ended up able to use Explode, Hammer of Thor, and a number of other obscure abilities like Dominate. I bet your Liara could use high-level psionic abilities as well as absurdly powerful biotics, if she's never killed a mate before. Basically, all we Ardat-Yakshi are absurdly powerful, partly since we are always born from the Unions of the most powerful Asari. The more we mate, the more we lose."

"So that was why you beat me off before but didn't manage this time…" Samara said thoughtfully, stroking her chin.

Mirala nodded, humming agreement "If I'd wanted, I could have killed you back then, all the attacks I threw at you were in self-defence, Mother, since I just couldn't bring myself to kill you." It was obvious to all three that this was too early for her to call Samara "Mom".

There was a long silence "Well, this is awkward, maybe we should just talk tactics… How are you doing with your new equipment?"

Mirala shrugged "Already familiar, trained with them when I was in Coalition Space, though those were usually one generation before these ones, they're effectively the same."

"Maybe we should leave the Commander to his own devices, Mirala, he's had a lot to think about." Samara suggested. The two Asari exchanged nods before standing to leave with goodbyes. "And we have a lot to talk about, like how reliable the Order's 'reliable'" it was the first time Shepard saw Samara use air quotes "Intel was."

"Bye guys!" Shepard called before the door closed. _How will I tell her?_ He pondered before concluding _I'll tell her after our next Union, when we've proved she's not dangerous to me and that she's got nothing to be worried about._ He got back up, he'd need to finish his rounds before resting.

* * *

_Liara T'Soni's office, Ilium, January 26, 3871_

Liara was still up even though it was three in the morning local time. She was rubbing her eyes tiredly as she sifted her way through the two large data packets that had just come in from her informers, comparing and contrasting them, wishing she had a Cybran's processing speed. More specifically, she was wishing for Shepard's processing speed, she'd found before his untimely death that when they worked together, both of them worked faster, almost as if they had been born to work as a unit, as a pair. She winced as she rolled her left shoulder and found the muscles rather stiff from staying in one position too long. She reached over with her right hand while manipulating the keyboard with her left, and kneaded the sore muscles, making a small noise of discomfort and irritation at the data.

* * *

_Mindscape of John Shepard, Bodily Location: CSC Normandy, January 26, 3871_

Shepard watched from outside her office, watching the back of her head, the beautiful, delicate crest ridges he loved to stroke, kiss suck and even nibble on. Of course, the last two were generally reserved for intimate moments, since they were a highly erogenous zone for Asari if actions were performed correctly. For some reason, he'd always had a knack of doing exactly the right things to give her pleasure… He let his eyes trace over the figure of the woman he loved, diligently working away at her purpose in life… or so his image of her was portrayed as. Even now, wearing a shield belt, she looked absolutely delectable to him, and he remembered how her scent, according to the dream he'd had last night, drove him utterly crazy for her. John Shepard shuddered at the realization that Liara T'Soni was, in fact, the ultimate predator… but he couldn't stop loving her, besides, weren't humans generally immune one way or another to psychic intrusion?

He continued shakily down the checklist Samara had given him without knowing it. Liara's eyes, when he looked at them, promised him things, assuming they didn't hurt, he would be afraid to even think about with anyone else. Her voice would always be in the back of his mind, hell, even in his dreams, there was her, only her…

As if his thinking had disturbed her, she rolled her shoulder and winced. Almost instinctively, he reached out toward her, feeling himself pass through the armoured, shielded glass like it wasn't there, which in this dream it probably was not… and touched her.

* * *

_Liara T'Soni's office, Ilium, January 26, 3871_

Liara felt a warm, solid hand, grasp her own and gently lift it away from her shoulder. Instinctively she slung the person over herself onto her desk with her left arm in one fluid motion, ignoring the protest from her still-tense muscles, and trained her Laser Pistol on the man with her right hand. Her blue-grey eyes widened as she saw who it was, her memory having been refreshed by the delicious dream last night. "Shepard?" she whispered to herself.

"Yeah, it's me." The semi-transparent spectre of the Spectre rubbed his head as he got up, taking a timid step closer as she lowered her gun, sensing this was not a fake.

She gaped, staring at his warm brown eyes and soft, slightly sad smile "How… how are you here?" She was secretly dreading the answer, was his spirit coming to her in the dead of night to say farewell or something? Or did she unconsciously summon a Hallucination… again? Besides, after reading up on it from the Coalition's Wikipedia… wasn't Hallucination a Protoss High Templar or Sentry ability?

John chuckled, his warm breath on her skin making her shiver slightly as he chuckled "Don't worry, I didn't die again…" He frowned as he seemed to think of something, his hands rubbing at the tense muscles of her back. "Liara, did you remember me showing you that weird firewall effect that always happened during our Unions?" He seemed to tremble slightly as he said this, biting his lip and sweating bullets. She wondered why a figment of her imagination would be so nervous… she saved her progress on her console work, just in case.

* * *

_Mindscape of John Shepard, Bodily Location: CSC Normandy, January 26, 3871_

Shepard wondered why he was so nervous talking to a mental image, wasn't it better than talking to a mirror? He forced his mouth open "Liara… I… Someone else initiated a Union with me today."

* * *

_Liara T'Soni's office, Ilium, January 26, 3871_

Liara felt her breath hitch and her throat constrict painfully before this shadowy, semi-transparent but still solid version of John continued speaking. "I stopped her in time though, Liara…" She suddenly found she could breathe again, her pulse thundering in her ear ridges for a moment before calming. John sighed in relief as he looked down at her "You should have known I'd never let anyone except you get intimate with me. It's you, only you, for me." Shepard looked distraught at the way her face had probably flashed pale a moment ago and her desperate attempts to breathe.

* * *

_Mindscape of John Shepard, Bodily Location: CSC Normandy, January 26, 3871_

Shepard felt horrible at the way Liara's face had flashed pale grey and she had seemed to be suffocating when he told her the news. Hurting even an imaginary version of Liara hurt him inside… But he had to get it out, if he couldn't tell this vision of beauty that existed only in his head (the actual version was in his opinion far superior, therefore could not be classified as a "vision") he could never tell the real Liara the truth about herself.

* * *

_Liara T'Soni's office, Ilium, January 26, 3871_

"Liara, it was a mission thing, and it brought me to a realization… I got the same firewall alarms, and…" he took a steadying breath despite merely being a half-transparent spectre.

Liara leaned closer "Go on, Shepard, I promise I won't be mad…"

He let his breath out "Mirala, your half-sister, has overpowered biotics, some psionics and is an Ardat-Yakshi… and I didn't die."

Liara blinked a couple times and then whispered, trembling "Half-sister? Ardat-Yakshi? Are you telling me what I think you're telling me?"

John nodded solemnly "Yes, Liara, I am… you're one too."

Liara felt her world crack and herself grow faint just before she fell forward onto her crossed arms on her desk. She wondered for a moment why Shepard wasn't there to catch her, before her reality faded to black.

* * *

_Mindscape of John Shepard, Bodily Location: CSC Normandy, January 26, 3871_

Shepard had reached to catch her, yet her dazed form passed right through his arms as she passed out. He looked down at himself in horror, he was becoming less solid, more transparent as Liara's eyelids drifted closed over unfocused eyes. The simulation was ending before he could get a proper chance to gauge her reaction after the initial shock. He was sure it shouldn't be this way… he was just running the simulation off his mental imprint of her after all…

The scene faded and John Shepard's mind decided to sleep (after beating itself up over how bad the simulation had gone) in the same way as his body slumbered.

* * *

_Liara T'Soni's office, Ilium, January 26, 3871_

"Ugh…" Liara's eyes opened drowsily before she abruptly snapped upright, her monitor having gone to sleep mode already during her brief bout of unconsciousness. She felt sick as she remembered what John had told her, but then she shook her head to clear it. _It was just a dream, Liara, just a dream… a nightmare, yes, but far better than the ones you used to have, watching John die alone in the cold vacuum of space…_ She wrapped her arms around herself and shivered as she walked over to the fridge she kept in her office. Liara grabbed the breakfast she'd brought with her when she'd gotten the notice of the big data mines coming in. It was time to get back to work. After all, dreams couldn't hurt you unless you wanted them to, and they weren't real. She had been wishing that the dream last night was real, but now she'd changed her mind, since if dreams were real, this horrible hallucination of hers would have been too.

* * *

A/N: Originally, I intended for Shepard to actually get raped.

Sadly, that would result in… what's the term for killing your half-sister (who raped your love interest) and fellow A-Y?


	33. Stretching Its Legs

A/N: The Loyalist has something to do with the fact there are… oh I don't know, LOYALTY MISSIONS? And also it reflects on John Shepard's relationship status. Old Faithful is less overdone than Sempre Fi but gets roughly the same point across, as in "We, as in your mother and her mother, will kill your ass if you let her down in any way, shape or form".

Liara is NOT Samara's daughter! Didn't you catch the "half-sister" part? Benezia is Liara's mother, father to Mirala (aka Morinth), Rila and Falere, so Liara is NOT related to Samara, not directly, I said it already, Samara, Benezia and a third Asari had an unconventional relationship.

AYC will be updated a lot more than Supreme Balance, I already have the next chapter written. It was good that some people could guess where I was going, means my hints worked.

* * *

Chapter 33: Stretching Its Legs

_High Orbit over Zeona, CSC Normandy, January 26, 3871_

Shepard had been (after overcoming his initial despair) contemplating how they could clone Liara if they really wanted kids… except it would be illegal in any galactic government's area of influence and condemned anyways. The child would also be doomed to need to romance a Cybran or someone willing to become a Cybran, which was a bit of a problem. During his contemplations was when Kelly had informed him over the PA that he had new messages.

_The ICS Rosalie, an Independent Colonies survey ship with Cybran connections, has gone missing. IC scientists Dr. Manuel Cayce and Dr. Robert O'Loy are aboard the MSV Rosalie and conducting research for us. We need you to find the ship, her survey team, and the doctors. The ICS Rosalie was last seen near planet Zeona (Elysta, Ismar Frontier)._

That e-mail had brought them to this planet, which as EDI said, contained "Active Data Storage Sites that may contain data on the whereabouts of Doctors Cayce and O'Loy."

The recording they'd found on touchdown said they'd run into Geth far too often and the guy on the recording said he was going to another site with O'Loy. Shepard sighed and called down the drop they'd probably be needing if there was a lot of running around to do.

Over a fifteen hundred tons of Loyalist Siege Assault Bot (weight increased by upgrade options) hit the ground, dropped from a hundred meters up by the Restorer that had brought it down just in case. Even with landing thrusters, it took several moments before the earth stopped shaking and the crew boosted up (as opposed to using the ladder-rung-like extrusions the unit extended/self-lathed for boarding) into the two airlocks of the vehicle. There was one on either side of the muzzle-like "head" of the vehicle, under which was the Electron Bolter and over of which was the EMP device.

Over the years, the EMP had been upgraded to be able to fire once per five seconds as a short-range ability, though it cost energy to discharge, in addition to the death EMP effect. Over the left shoulder was the Tactical Missile Redirection device, firing twice per second at most, and the left arm was the Grenade Launcher system, a concept copied off and scaled up from the Mongoose's system. The main weapon was still the long, massive Disintegrator Pulse Laser that constituted the right (fore) arm (the upper arm was short enough it didn't matter much). It had been powered up to 225 DPS nowadays (one three-shot burst, 150 per bolt, per two seconds i.e. one second of shooting and one second of rest per cycle) just like all sorts of other weapons had had their numbers cranked up. Some people were calling for a full re-scaling of the numbering system already… especially since Mass income rates had grown too with the price tags and new technologies.

The Loyalist stomped into motion, reaching a hundred meters a second in under a second, though those inside felt no acceleration. The research packets were quite a ways away, so they had a moment to talk.

Mirala was very surprised at the smoothness of the ride and the lack of acceleration, and voiced her opinion. Legion's reply was "The Coalition has VERY advanced inertial compensation technologies, far beyond any known to the Citadel Races or even Geth."

Shepard said nothing, but… "Agreed, probably the only power able to come even close is the UND, which is part of the Coalition, though technologies are not shared completely with them, to give them a chance to 'make their own path'." Garrus glanced sideways at Thane at that. Jacob and Miranda had been told to stay in the Restorer as potential backup. This was one of the few outings when Tali wasn't around… the lithe Quarian's flamethrower was usually critical for any urban warfare scenario, especially for crowd might think a Quarian Flamethrower was a dumb idea much as a Quarian Knife Juggler would be, but it was actually not true, with Coalition Marine Armour, what was really inside wasn't much of an issue so long as the user was trained/experienced with the armour. The enviro-suit was effectively useless when Tali had the armour on, only acting as a second skin effectively, since anything able to rip through Coalition plating was more than likely to be able to utterly annihilate what was inside.

They ran down to the first research packets and grabbed them quickly with the self-repair system of the Loyalist, which though with near-negligible actual Engineering capacity was enough to pick up the packages and dump them in the Inventory of the Normandy i.e. the numerous utterly unused decks of the ship.

They jumped up to the next packets the easy way, also known as taking a big step up with a slight kick-off from the other leg of the big walker. The sad result of this was the "short" rock face crumbling under them with the impact and turning into a ramp that the Loyalist now stood on, unperturbed by forging its own path.

A short burst of Disintegrator Pulse Laser fire blasted apart a large chunk of hull wreckage that got in their way since Shepard didn't feel like going around. They walked over the blaze they'd started, crushing it with a single step of the Loyalist's huge foot and extinguishing it, not incurring enough damage to the structural fields to even drop a single point.

They continued grabbing packets from around the canyon until the scanners detected no more on the strategic display. Picking up the last packet, Shepard called for the Restorer for a pickup via his strategic controls. The 40-meter long T3 AA Gunship cast a huge shadow over the thirty-meter-tall Siege Assault Bot and picked it up by the tractor-beam type grapplers.

* * *

The SAB was released into the Normandy in much the same fashion as the Rhino used to be released. The machine was pushed by tractor beam into the cargo bay, then grabbed by other tractors that only attracted the top tractor plates of the machine, and thus flipped around. The cargo bay floor closed under it, locking into place, and the machine was allowed to drop to the deck with another loud crash of two huge, metallic/ceramic feet hitting the deck.

Miranda and Jacob, still armoured, were already standing on the part of the cargo bay deck that was fixed "Shepard, we've got a new e-mail from Cybran High Command, they've found something." She was all business, and Shepard shared a look with Garrus, the Turian obviously asking _Are you sure setting them up together as the backup party will work as well as it did with Ash and Kaidan?_

"Got it, Miranda, I'm checking it out right now." A soft clunk from the speakers announced the Restorer's docking to the ship in front of the SCU that was anchored closer to the stern of the ship. "The data you recovered from the MSV Rosalie's emergency beacon contained significant intel on a few planets that Dr. Cayce and Dr. O'Loy investigated. EDI has added the locations to your galaxy map. We hope that one of them leads to the Prothean site. Despite Dr. Cayce's obvious instability, he's proven to be a brilliant and dedicated scientist. If you salvage any more of his logs or journals, it would greatly help our efforts. We still don't know how the geth are tracking Dr. Cayce, so be careful." He looked up "Huh, well, EDI, let's get our asses to Corang, now."

* * *

After reducing five Geth Dropships to flaming scrap within a single volley of their weapons (the Ravager Plasma Chainguns took two down in a single strafing run)

EDI reported as they dropped down toward the planet with the Loyalist "Scans have found locations matching the descriptions of Dr. Cayce's survey sites. Exploring the sites could reveal valuable mission data. Warning: Geth presence detected on planet's surface. Use caution."

There was a metallic crunching over the internal speakers when the Loyalist dropped down on top of a cluster of Geth Troopers. Then the huge walker turned to the larger threats, three Geth Colossi that were already firing on it. Shepard, using manual targeting of weapons, charged the left side, and furthest, twenty-meter-tall walker at full speed while firing at the other ones.

The Geth units didn't stand a chance, two volleys from the DPL reduced one was flaming scrap while the other had sustained significant damage from continuous Electron Bolter and Grenade Launcher (more powerful than 21st century MLRS rockets) fire before disintegrating in another burst of DPL fire. The Loyalist literally ran by the return fire, most of it, before barrelling into the third, more distant mech shoulder-first. Metallic crunching announced success in the curb-stomping before the Loyalist stopped due to resistance, the chin Electron Bolter and left arm Grenade Launcher pointing down and pumping rounds into the Geth unit until it finally exploded in death. They grabbed the data and marched off to the next cache.

The Loyalist's structural fields held off the acid pool they stomped through effortlessly, hell, it could handle the conditions of Concord Lake and Sludge, for God's sake! They grabbed some resource containers, which were useless anyways, before opening fire at medium range, around four hundred meters, just short of the default engagement range for Loyalists. They smashed the Geth guarding the next data cache by standing still and firing. The return fire didn't even drop their (relatively) paper-thin over-shield bubble, which most Commanders do not believe to be worth using simply because the price increase is too much for the few hundred points of shield bubble.

* * *

"That was a joke." EDI stated into the quiet. The five data points all had significant Geth presence, but the Loyalist simply smashed its way through all of them with absurd ease. It almost felt like using hacks in a video game…

"You have a new e-mail Commander. Rate we're going, might as well not bother putting the Loyalist inside the cargo bay, wastes time." Kelly remarked.

_From: Cybran High Command_

The artifacts you gathered might give us a lead on a larger ancient site. They have incredible value for historians and might be instrumental in building our understanding of ancient legacies… these may even precede the Protheans, we've decided to call them… Forerunners.

Excellent work in mitigating the geth presence, Commander. We will keep you apprised of further geth activity, should it threaten mission integrity.

"We're docking the Loyalist first, on the Normandy's hull, then we can head off to Lattesh." Shepard decided. So, they tractor-locked the Loyalist to the hull before clamping it, then entered the ship by boarding umbilical before it jumped.

* * *

_High Orbit over Lattesh, CSC Normandy, January 26, 3871_

"Surface temperatures extremely low but the Loyalist can handle it." EDI concluded. After all, Coalition units could operate on Pluto, and had during the battle for Sol at the climax of the Seraphim War. "Coalition Armours can also handle it easily."

"So this is a pick-up mission?" Shepard groaned, so boring! Especially with the Loyalist…

* * *

From: Cybran High Command  
Commander, a very capable team is analyzing the data you gathered from the geth's research into atmospheric change, it's really quite primitive… though we hope it may open up new avenues for terraforming procedures for future Council Tech colonies by the Council Raves. There is no evidence of Prothean activity on this planet.

"Great, just great, we went there… for NOTHING." Shepard threw his arms up as the ship jumped to the next planet. It required a two-step process as the next target currently had a Quantum Depression in the area.

* * *

The Loyalist literally walked on the lava, splashing through it in huge leaps at well over a hundred meters a second using its sprinting capabilities, ignoring the damage the ability inflicted. It jumped across a chasm that was acting as a trench for the lava to spill into before the Restorer managed to get to them and pick them up.

On the way back to the Normandy and as the Loyalist slowly self-repaired … "You have a new private e-mail message, Shepard." EDI stated.

Shepard sighed and opened said e-mail, at least they'd gotten some credits out of the dangerous mission…

From: Cybran High Command

That was a close one on Karumto, Shepard. A disturbing fact has come to light in analyzing the channel you used to transmit your findings. Unauthorized transmissions have been sent from the MSV Rosalie to an unknown destination. It's assumed that this is how the Geth are tracking Drs. Cayce and O'Loy. The data you retrieved gives us a definitive location for Dr. Cayce's Prothean site. The doctor was certain that the site held a Prothean revelation of enormous significance. It is recommended you head there as soon as possible to counter any Geth retrieval missions already in play.

"Here we go again…"

_Agreed, this is tedious, though it is good to be carried around inside such a tough ride._ Urz thought to the crew, which consisted of Mirala, Legion, Thane and Garrus this time. Only Mirala caught the message, other than Shepard, that is.

* * *

EDI reported the scan results as they dropped down toward the planet "Prothean artefacts detected on planet's surface. Artefact site is protected by a powerful energy barrier. Scans detected muted mechanical signatures consisted with hidden automated defences." The blue ball avatar paused as if surprised "The shield protecting the site appears to be too powerful for any of our weapons other than Strategic Missiles to penetrate within two shots, recommend destroying the generators. The area's going to be a fun exercise with the Loyalist, so I'd recommend not using the Restorer or the Normandy's guns on the generators."

"Personally I prefer saving time, but I think it does the squad good to all get a tour in the Loyalist." Shepard replied, they'd brought the whole crew in the Restorer, and so the whole crew filed into the Loyalist, which had far more than enough space to accommodate everyone as it ran at its normal speed toward the nearest power generator. A series of muffled mechanical explosions rang out on the PA and the structural fields fluctuated down a point or so before firming back up.

"What was that?" Jedore asked.

"We just ran over and/or kicked some Rocket Drones…" Tali reported from where she was watching the tactical level displays while Shepard busied himself with strategic map direction planning. "This is one occasion on which I feel slightly sorry for the Geth."

Legion's cool blue helmet optics blinked and the helmet nodded in agreement "Consensus has been achieved. The heretics should surrender to avoid further losses. Resistance pitiful by organic standards, good to see we agree."

"I might accept you and trust you to watch my back in a fight but that doesn't mean I enjoy your voice, Legion."

"Understood, Creator Tali'Zorah, to reduce risk of physical harm to this unit when outside armour, will be quiet now…" Legion's lights pulsed again before the Geth spoke in a stage-whisper "That better?"

Tali facepalmed and the rest of them chuckled as the Loyalist stomped off toward the next generator after smashing the first to bits with one pulse of Disintegrator Pulse Laser fire (typical bursts were in threes). Annoyingly, said next generator was in a tunnel… a tunnel far too small for the Loyalist to fit in, but due to the fact that the grenade launcher had limited guidance abilities, they managed to fire into the generator and wreck it before the tunnel collapsed from all the high-yield explosions.

The third generator was easy prey for a short burst of Electron Bolter fire and the last, though shielded behind a rock formation, was taken down by manually aiming the grenade launcher up toward the sky and firing mortar-style until it worked, destroying the generator in a hail of Iridium Grenade Launcher fire. It was effectively an Iridium Rocket Pack with some modifications, such as smaller size and yield, perfect for taking down Tier 1 hordes in the unlikely event Loyalists ever encountered them. It also served as a relatively long-ranged weapon much as the Meson Rocket Launcher added to the Titan did.

After the barrier went down, Shepard, Samara, Mirala, Tali, Garrus and Urz jumped down from the Loyalist's airlock and walked into the ruins.

* * *

_CSC Normandy, January 26, 3871_

"I am sincerely hoping your typical missions are not that boring." Mirala grumbled as she stripped out of her armour and put on regular clothes, in this case a loose-fitting shirt and similarly comfortable pants, in contrast to her mother's "flexibility" focus, Mirala was more focused on comfort, relying mostly on her own biotics to keep her alive long enough to scrabble some armour on. Sure, her offensive biotics were merely standard fare other than her special abilities, which typically took some time to prep, but her defence was still excellent, better even than her mother's, especially with the use of a Fortress Barrier.

"They're not." Shepard replied while he tucked his helmet in his Quantum Storage (termed "Inventory" by most Marines) "I think bringing the Loyalist might have been a bit much, but you can't deny that Geth Colossi do take a while to whittle down with other weapons… and are risky to engage without a vehicle."

"True… WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?" Mirala gestured at the monstrous creature that had just appeared around the corner.

_I'm Urz, remember?_ The creature tilted its head and worked its jaw as it guffawed at Mirala's stunned expression, revealing many sharp teeth in the process. _Yeah, I know, my armour makes me look really different, especially with the blue band of light across my eyes instead of their normal gun barrel red._

"Uh, sorry if I offended you, Urz, but I was just surprised, that's all."

Shepard patted her shoulder "Don't worry, everyone's a bit freaked out the first time they meet a Zerg and don't have armour, shields, and guns to back them up."

_Agreed, hey, did I tell you about the time I scared a Krogan into pissing himself? Well, okay, he was out taking a leak on guard duty, so it wasn't that hard for some piss to get on himself, but that was when I first got to Tuchanka. They got used to me after a while… and after I hunted down a lot of the pests around the Urdnot base._ Urz grinned before leaving.

"That was interesting." Jedore remarked once the ruckus had died down in the mess hall.

"That it was… and so is this… artefact thingy." Shepard gestured vaguely at the holo of the artefact they'd picked up. "Except we haven't figured out shit about it other than the fact that it reflects only the room, Quarians, Humans, and Asari when you look at it."

"Freaky, isn't it?" Garrus pointed out.

"Thanks, captain obvious." Mirala grumbled before she bit into her food.

Thane spoke nest, drawing eyes to him "Well, the expeditions weren't a total waste."

Grunt snorted "We got some credits, that what you're saying? Well duh, but still it was damned boring…"

Jack poked him, making the Krogan frown at the much smaller convict "I wouldn't call riding a vehicle and dispensing righteous fury boring, Grunt."

"Coalition Inertial Compensation systems very interesting, capably of such extreme accelerations while already within the significant field of influence of a gravity well." Mordin was rambling while Jack and Grunt were debating the matter.

_You know what all this reminds me of?_ Urz said mentally to Shepard as the mess tables dissolved into loud, raucous conversation. _The worst days on the Hyperion, just after the Brood War, when the couple Hunter Killers and I were the only Zerg, Elite Zerg that is, that sided against the Swarm and survived, none of the Terrans or Protoss liked us much and had a tendency to debate among themselves and ignore us. Still, they accepted us, that was good enough for me and the two HK's._

* * *

A/N: Yes the Prothean ball, or a similar/derived device, does have an important role (in my fic-verse) later, much, MUCH later.

I know it was boring, but that's because the Loyalist is just too tough, hell, any T3 would have been a bit too tough…


	34. Back to the Citadel, Back to the Past

A/N: Someone raised the issue of Mary Sues and curb-stomping. I apologize, but one-village-idiot is right, unless I choose a T1 land unit, Geth Colossi are not a danger, since even T2 can beat them one on one or one on two, not even counting the huge movement speed difference. Also, JMK2 asked about a sort-of harem for Shepard, we shall see about that…

Believe me, the Coalition is soon to get some nasty surprises. The first one was already past, the 10-km Derelict Reaper. That says something.

I have put up the second chapter of The Ardat-Yakshi Chronicles (the hyphen doesn't work for some reason), Mirala's back-story, please note the time stamp when reading that one, enjoy!

This is a bit of a filler chapter, but it's where the story will get slightly darker, if I can even make a story dark… we shall see (Daro'Xen quote).

* * *

Chapter 34: Back to the Citadel, Back to the Past

_Citadel, January 27, 3871_

"Miranda, Jacob, Kasumi, I have a mission for you." Shepard beckoned them over. "I need you guys to go and hang out at Flux, relax, drink and dance a little."

Miranda's eye twitched at the idea of "relaxing", the problem was… "No offence, Commander, but I find work more relaxing than trying to poison myself with alcoholic beverages." The "perfect" woman replied with a shrug.

He shook his head and pulled her aside "It's an order, Miranda, I'm ordering you to go hang out with Jacob, he isn't that bad, is he? I hear you and him were pretty serious back in the day…"

"With all due respect, Commander, we simply can't let personal feelings get in the way of the mission—" she was cut off by a hand on her mouth, and glared indignantly at Shepard for it.

"You seemed to be willing to risk it back then when we were talking, Miranda, why not with him? He's a good guy, hell, he's held out against everyone else for this long just because he can't let go of you." Shepard hissed. "Granted, he can't put emotions on the back burner and then deal with them in under a week like Cybrans can when they really want to get it out of the way, like I did with Akuze… though I still beat Wayne within an inch of his life, but still."

Miranda rolled her eyes "Fine, I'll go hang out with them, but don't expect me to like it."

Shepard snorted "You wouldn't be Miranda if you liked partying." He cut the private channel and went to squad comms "Grunt, Tali, Legion, Samara, with me, Jedore and Thane, give Mirala a tour of the Citadel, if you don't mind, she hasn't been here in a long time… but before you go, I want to talk to her."

There was a chorus of affirmatives before the Restorer docked with the Citadel and the crew disembarked. The other crewmembers gave Shepard and Mirala some distance, and Shepard clapped the Ardat-Yakshi around her Aeon Heavy Armour's shoulder pauldrons "Mirala, you mentioned hunting Seven Hand Node people, how did you hunt them? Was it by melding? Was that why you melded with me, knowing Cybrans were killable?"

Mirala gaped at the random question "Uh, no, I sniped a few escaped Seven Hand members from a safe distance as a favour to Brackman, helps draw attention in the Independent Colonies away from the Coalition looming over them and more toward how dangerous other factions out there were compared to the Coalition…"

"Basically, to get them to come back." John finished for her, nodding "Alright, I understand, so you mind telling me why you melded with me in particular?"

Mirala felt around furtively with her limited psionics for people who could potentially overhear before hissing over private comms "I needed someone strong enough to upload my memories to the Cybran Network before they died, I got reliable intel that my mother had reached Omega and knew a reckoning was nigh, so I needed to ensure the truth didn't die with me, by uploading it to the Cybran Network… I was shocked when I found I didn't have to hold my nervous system back, probably more shocked than you were finding out your mate was an Ardat-Yakshi."

Shepard nodded "Understood, Mirala, okay, go enjoy yourself, you deserve it after all the trouble you've gone through."

* * *

When she heard the volus say in the middle distance "You know what Quarians are like, they take anything that's not welded to the deck!" Tali felt for the first time glad James wasn't with them, or the volus would be in mortal peril, well, not so much mortal peril as death, but still.

"Sir, I'm going to have to ask you to calm down." The human C-Sec officer, one of the few there were, was saying to the volus when Shepard and co approached. "Sorry, trying to take a statement here." The officer held up his data pad to show he was busy to the approaching Marines.

"There's nothing to talk about! She stole my credit chit, arrest her!" The volus was making Tali VERY glad James wasn't here, or he'd probably be a smoking crater already.

"I did not! Just because I'm a Quarian…" Tali's eyes widened in recognition at that voice, that suit, it was Lia'Vael nar Ulnay alright, even the transponder said so.

"I need you to stop and take a deep breath." The human officer was telling the Volus.

The volus grew indignant at that "You're mocking me, Earth-clan! Just because the Vol-clan need…"

"Apologies, it was a poor choice of words." The human replied, looking down at the deck for a moment.

"You're sure you're falsely accused?" Shepard asked the Quarian, Lia'Vael nar Ulnay if Tali's info was accurate.

"I was walking to the used ship dealer when he barged into me outside the Sirta Foundation. He didn't stop or say he was sorry. A minute later, he runs up with C-Sec and accuses me of stealing his damn chit." Lia explained rather animatedly.

Shepard glared down at the Volus before looking back up at the Quarian woman, who he noted other than the digits and the knee differences (joint further back, thicker kneecap relative to leg) looked very much like a human would "You ran into each other outside the Sirta Foundation, you sure the chit didn't fall out his pocket?"

Lia shrugged "No clue, all I know is I didn't take it."

Shepard nodded, it was true that Quarians were reputed to be thieves, but they despised thievery. "Do you spend a lot of time at the used ship dealer?"

"Yeah, they've got a lot of nice models" Lia'Vael was wringing her hands, and Shepard noted a human's hand with the middle and ring fingers removed would look exactly like that. "I'd like to buy one and take it back to the Fleet, but…"

"Your pilgrimage isn't going so well, is it?" Tali asked bluntly.

"Tali'Zorah?" Tali nodded, and Lia nodded back respectfully "No… I came here thinking there would be a lot of work, EVA stuff, salvage, helping fix the damage the Geth attack left, the parts not fixed by the Coalition's clean-up crews. But everywhere I went to apply, signs said 'Not Hiring Quarians'" Shepard was thrown back to Pre-Quantum History class, where they'd learned how Nazi Germany started with "Not Hiring Jews" on stores while Lia continued "and the other people would give me mean looks."

He glared down at the volus "You say she stole your chit?"

"She must have, when I left the Sirta Foundation store, she ran right into me."

Shepard leaned down, looming over the volus with blood-red helmet optics and his "horns" also pulsing faint red "What does running into you have to do with your chit?" He asked quietly.

The volus took a step back in fear and held his arms out toward Lia'Vael "That's how pickpockets work, they bump into you and use that as a cover for rifling your pockets." Lia was obviously annoyed, crossing her arms and shaking her head. "You can't turn your back on these clan-less Quarians, thieves, all of them."

Two dull, thudding armoured steps later a gleaming suit of Aeon Medium Armour in all its ivory and olive green glory was towering over the stubby Volus like a goddess of war "Quarians are only forced to steal when trash like you won't let them have real jobs."

The Volus seemed to recognize the metallic accent as Quarian "And to think my taxes pay to support you here, go back to your fleet, clan-less!"

"I am clan Zorah, crew of the starship Neema, and you, are an idiot." She was sorely tempted to give him a good punch, since her armour would allow her to punch all the way through him, suit and all, in one good swing.

"My first instinct was to actually think from your side of things, volus, but I don't like your attitude. Tali, it's not worth it, he's not worthy getting angry over."

Tali snorted "My brain would agree with you, Shepard, but my gut says to give him a nice dose of Purifying Flame."

Obviously the volus race was not intimidated as much as the others were by the Coalition's might "I don't like the company you keep." The glorified bowling ball on legs grumbled back.

After a facepalm and a sigh (trying to keep in the urge to send the guy rolling)… "You got a clue on who's honest?" Shepard looked toward the officer, hoping he'd have some common sense.

"My omni-tool can tell the Quarian doesn't have a chit on her, but she might have stashed it to retrieve later. You know what Quarians are like." The man's shoulder shifted slightly and Shepard suddenly noted the absence of a factional logo. If the other shoulder was bare of the Coalition logo too, then… "And she's definitely a vagrant, I'll run her in and see what Chellick wants to do with her."

Tali's fingers were itching for the familiar grip of her Flamethrower, and she wondered if she'd been negatively influenced by her time with Shepard's crew, if so, it was only in a desire to stand up for herself and her people, not negative at all, she decided. "She's not a vagrant, she's on Pilgrimage, it's a tradition in which…"

She was cut off "Look, you can take your traditions and cram them, every time a Quarian shows up here, it's trouble." _Oh I'll show you trouble alright, in the form of Purifying Flame!_ Tali's darker side growled.

Shepard too was tempted to show this Independent Colonies guy the business end of his LBR, but that would solve nothing. _Racism, really shows why he decided to join the ICs in the first place, couldn't even stand his fellow humans from other factional backgrounds._ The ICs were generally UEF with a planet or two of former Aeon. None were ex-Cybran, since the Symbiont Removal Procedure was just too painful for most and the Cybran Network allowed mostly logical thought and reason to prevail. "I'll see if I can find out what happened."

The officer held up a hand "Sir, this is a C-Sec matter, we'll do all we…can to resolve this, we don't need Marine help for this sort of thing, if you do happen to find the chit, please let one of our officers know."

Shepard nodded curtly before turning to his party "Let's go…" The rest of the Galaxy wasn't as nice and happy as Coalition Space typically was, and it was annoying to see, but still, it wasn't like everyone had mass fabrication. Besides, even that had its limitations, and Paragons were pushing those limitations hard.

* * *

"You forgot your chit at Saronis Applications, the clerk's holding it for you."

The Volus was unrepentant and shrugged "Well, the Quarian could have stolen it."

"I'll close this event report." The human officer said before looking to Lia "But I'll be watching you. Get a permanent residence or I'll run you in for vagrancy."

Two steps brought Shepard face-to-face (he'd stowed his helmet) to the other man "Are you serious?"

"What?" The volus seemed bewildered.

"You falsely accuse this girl of stealing from you, all you have to say now is that she 'could have'" He used air quotes "stolen it?" Shepard shoved the volus as if trying to shake the idiot awake.

"Now just a min…" The Volus started, but was ignored… for now.

Shepard picked the C-Sec idiot up with one hand easily "And you, she gets harassed and insulted by this bastard and you throw in a threat to arrest her for vagrancy?" He said simply, coldly, his circuits pulsing with rage.

"How about I run you in for obstruction of justice, Cybran?" The man was being a defiant ass about it, so…

The dumbass turned into a lasso being whirled around over Shepard's head, screaming while Shepard bellowed at him "You think you're going to 'run in' a Spectre? I think both of you should get out of here." Needless to say, the man got out of there by being thrown into the volus, the two rolling away as if in an anime.

As they watched the idiots bounce away, Lia spoke "Thank you, I wish I could give you something more than words."

"Can you take care of yourself from here?" Shepard asked her.

"I guess, I mean, most nights I eat nutrient paste in a Turian shelter, but I'm surviving."

"Good, could you tell me what the hell was wrong with that C-Sec bastard? He had no evidence against you."

Lia rubbed her visor "I don't know, everyone's been like that since I got here…"

"The Citadel has never been tolerant of Quarians on Pilgrimage, the Geth attack two years ago must have made it worse." Tali supplied "Good luck, Lia'Vael."

"If you're hurting for employment opportunities, Lia, consider heading down to one of the Armouries, I hear they're hiring mostly Quarians and some Krogan, compensates for the habits of the rest of the Citadel, since there aren't that many Quarians or Krogan around. Good luck."

"Thanks!" She called as the five-person party left.

* * *

"I wonder what a Presidium Fish would taste like…" one Krogan was saying to another.

The other facepalmed "I'm telling you there are NO FISH in there."

"I heard an Urdnot went up there once."

"Ha, an Urdnot on the Presidium, that'd be the day."

There was a long silence between the Krogan as Shepard and co passed by "Do you think we could get in if we went along the outer hull in pressure suits?"

"What? To kill Turians? We can do that here." Shepard sighed as he overheard the racism, he had been contemplating things, and maybe Thane was right, the galaxy wasn't a bright and happy place most of the time… in most places.

"No, to get a fish from those lakes." the crew chuckled in their armour at that.

"Will you forget the damn fish?" The other Krogan was obviously annoyed.

* * *

"There anything I could do for you?" The Turian looked up from where he was picking his finger-claws.

"Noticed you're a Presidium Groundskeeper, know if there are any fish in the lakes?" Shepard motioned in the general direction of the Presidium.

The groundskeeper chuckled before saying "I get that question a lot, right behind 'where's the restroom?' Those are reservoirs, the Presidium's own supply; they're independent from the storage tanks of the Wards. Only place I know on the station to get live fish is the gift shop…" The man shrugged.

"That stuff coming out of the tap is the tourists' garbage dump, okay." Shepard deadpanned; suddenly very glad he drank his armour's mass-fabricated water. "Thanks for the help, then, I'll see you around." They exchanged nods before Shepard and co left.

* * *

"Hello." Shepard said as he walked up.

"Greetings, Marine." The vast majority of Krogan on the Citadel had gained a large measure of respect for the Coalition Marines (partly because they tended to come across as overpowered) after the battle with the Geth two years ago.

"I wanted to ask, why did you want a fish from the Presidium?"

The Krogan whose nametag read Kargesh replied with "It's so decadent, eating a fish from the Presidium would be like screwing Sha'ira…" Shepard had to agree that for a non-Ardat-Yakshi Sha'ira had her own attractive values, but to be honest he still preferred A-Y's.

"Asari are so… squishy. Where are you supposed to get a decent grip?" His friend grumbled. _And that is why most Asari do not romance Krogan._ Shepard surmised _Well, that just means more for the Turians and Humans._

"Huh, well, there aren't any fish in the Presidium lakes, I asked the groundskeepers about it, they're reservoirs for water."

"Damn…" Kargesh looked rather forlorn.

His friend looked happy at the news "You done obsessing over the fish now?"

"Yeah, let's go" Kargesh grumbled before adding "thank you, Marine."

"Glad to help."

* * *

They met up with Mirala, Jedore and Thane shortly before passing through the waiting room of the customs area. While passing, Shepard caught part of the conversation… "I can't believe these humans, no fly lists? What have they turned this place into?" The blue Asari sitting on an L-shaped couch said to her purple companion.

Shepard walked over at that, knowing that there was no way Coalition tech would have no fly lists (they'd just arrest people they found really suspicious), unless it was the non-Coalition colonies they were getting the personnel from, then anything was possible "I overheard you talking, having a problem?"

"It's a private matter." Samara sighed at how rude younger Asari could be sometimes.

Shepard shrugged "Give me a chance, I might be able to help."

"I don't wee why you would but…" the blue Asari frowned "since your kind gained a seat on the Council, they've taken over C-Sec customs, there are hundreds of new security clerks and travel restrictions. We've been flagged as a potential risk for Geth infiltration, they won't let us board a ship back to Asari space…"

"Why would they consider you a risk? You're obviously not Geth…" He glanced at Legion, who was twiddling his fingers behind Shepard while whistling innocently.

_Where did Legion learn to whistle innocently?_ Urz thought aloud, making the two Asari look down at the armoured creature with frowns. _Oh, sorry, back to the matter at hand._

The Asari was still frowning as she spoke again "I don't know, they wouldn't tell us. We got on a list somewhere, for some reason, and they won't tell us anything because 'It's classified'."

Shepard was scribbling it down on his chest-projected holo-console "Who wouldn't let you board a ship?"

"I don't know who made the decision, some pencil-pusher at the shuttle port told us, the one outside the C-Sec station?" She looked to her friend for confirmation, which she got in the form of a nod.

Shepard shut his holo-console down for now "I'll see if I can get it sorted out."

"I'm not holding my breath." The Asari said as the trio walked away.

* * *

"Can I help you, sir?" The Customs woman asked, she was obviously from the independent colonies from the lack of a factional shoulder patch on her right shoulder or even a Coalition one on the left. Also, it was obvious since very few Coalition people other than Marines came to the Citadel, none for employment (unemployment in the Coalition was only for those unwilling to work, since job availability exceeded demand with all the deaths of the Seraphim War).

"I talked to a couple of Asari, they say customs won't let them leave the station, but they weren't told why, can you help me out?"

"I'm sorry sir, but all matters related to station security are classified, we can't risk Geth infiltration." Shepard rolled his eyes pointedly, while Legion shifted in his armour at the pointed look from a certain Quarian Machinist who was quivering with laughter. "Revealing why someone is on a watch list might compromise the safety of C-Sec's undercover agents."

Shepard leaned forward and drummed his fingers on the table, almost wishing he had his helmet and its red optics on for intimidation "Did you talk with them? Did they seem like Geth agents to you?"

The woman shrugged "Well, no, but you can never be sure."

Shepard sighed and facepalmed before letting the hand slide down his face "Look, miss, I've fought hundreds of Geth, I can assure you that those two are not Geth infiltrators."

"The lack of flashlight heads was kind of a giveaway." Legion remarked mechanically. "Also, Geth do not infiltrate."

The customs officer looked closely at Legion for a moment, checking out his armour and visor optics "I don't they allow robotic assistants on flights any more… and I didn't think they wore armour either."

There was an audible clunk of Legion's armoured palm meeting the visor before the Geth shook his head sadly "Geth do not intentionally infiltrate."

The customs officer shrugged helplessly "I'm not saying it makes any sense, but these are the rules I have to enforce. I can't get them cleared, but I can flag the case files for review, that'll allow them to travel in the meantime. Is there anything else I can do for you?"

Shepard shook his head "I'm fine, thanks for your help. Legion, you can stop banging your head on the desk now… shit, uh, see you later, customs woman!" He and Tali enlisted Grunt's help in dragging Legion away from where he'd been repeatedly hitting this visor on the customs desk. Samara was simply chuckling and shaking her head as she followed them.

"Hmm, pretty nice of that robotic assistant to do this." The Turian who was up next remarked with a grin as he rested his forearm in the dent the helmet had made in the metal table. "Perfectly shaped dent too."

"Hey, you!" The customs woman shouted after the fleeing group before rolling her eyes "I guess the Council will foot the bill for Spectre Crew Damages…"

* * *

The blue Asari looked up as they approached "So?"

"Good news, I convinced them to let you go."

The Asari gaped for a moment, left eye twitching before exchanging a bewildered look with her friend "You WHAT? How did you do that?"

"I explained how their methods are flawed. I've fought a LOT of Geth in my time."

"Few have… how unexpected." She nodded thanks before turning to her friend "We should get ready to leave, there should be another ship heading to Thessia tomorrow." They walked off, waving goodbye as they left.

"Not even a thank you, youngsters these days…" Mirala shook her head and sighed.

Samara, whose mouth was half-open, turned to regard her eldest "I was about to say that…"

* * *

A/N: Shepard's about to get a wake-up call regarding the darkness of the universe. That wake-up call should be… now. It was originally another chapter, but it just wasn't long enough.

* * *

_Citadel, January 27, 3871_

"Fuck." Shepard growled, a Lieutenant Girard had just requested help from him, it was a Mindoir survivor who'd escaped from the Batarians who'd taken her four years ago. He recalled the battle where he and his brother had slowly but surely pounded their way toward the holdout buildings, before the Coalition managed to bring in more reinforcements and stamp the attacking Batarians into the ground. It had been the beginning of the Skyllian Blitz, so called because of the speed at which the armies of Coalition Marines and Commanders had exterminated the attacking Batarian faction. He felt the tingling of the same guilt, regret and hate that he had long since dealt with creep up toward him as he approached the Lieutenant in question. The man was wearing UEF Light Armour, like Legion was behind John.

"Commander, glad to see you." The man saluted.

Shepard set his jaw. "I had to help, came up as fast as I could. Is she back there?" He motioned toward the relevant area where he was picking up an orange contact, an armed neutral.

The Lieutenant nodded "Yes sir. Behind those shipping containers, I've got a sniper positioned with an LBR-3, but I don't think we'll need him, she's only a danger to herself. We've got a sedative to calm her down, but we can't get close enough. IF we put it in a dart she'll probably shoot herself before falling unconscious, and every step we take wounds her up even more."

Shepard extended a hand and the Lieutenant gave him the loaded hypo spray "I'll take care of her, don't worry."

"Thanks, sir. Don't push her too hard, if she seems liable to pull the trigger, back off, or walk away, I'm wiling to wait her out… Good luck, Commander." The man saluted again.

Shepard merely nodded before he walked toward the shipping crates "crew, stay back, I'll handle this… it's about time I helped a Mindoir survivor, fixed some of my mistakes." He shouldn't have worried about his structural fields back then, after all, he could have sailed on the weak rounds the Batarians were putting out for some time before starting to take real hits. He should have killed more of the squints, saved more of the colonists, instead of following doctrine. He took off his helmet, it was better this way, his personal shields would deal with any shots thrown his way short of a Coalition-level tank round.

"Stop! What do you… what are you?" The girl, with very short hair and many scars, pointed the pathetically underpowered pistol at Shepard's head.

"I'm Commander Shepard, Coalition of Species marine, Lieutenant Girard sent me to talk to you what's your name?"

The girl, who couldn't have been older than fourteen or so, shook her head, and Shepard noticed how malnourished she looked, it would take some time for even Coalition medicine to fix "Animals don't get names. The masters put their symbols on her, hot metal all over her back, she screams when they do it." The third-person talking was chilling, and reminded John to ask his mother (when she wasn't going to rip his head off) why she didn't just leave the Batarians inside their sealed fortress (sealed by strategic missile) to die on Torfan, or do the destruction more brutally.

"You're not an animal, your parents? What did they call you, do you still remember them?" John hoped she hadn't gotten brain damage from what the Batarians put her through, the four-eyed Syndicates had enough to answer for, if the Coalition would get off its ass and actually go to war with them, hell, war with the Council would be worth it to get vengeance on the squints.

The girl was obviously in pain as she spoke "She remembers a lot of things… Talitha" The gun arm slowly lowered to her side "they call her that, she…" She wiped her forehead with the gun hand "She doesn't remember the rest. Leave her alone."

"What do you remember of your parents?"

"There's… she sees them," She started looking around wildly "they're yelling, Run, Hide. They hit the masters, but the masters… they have lights and hoses, Daddy's… he's melting!" Shepard was internally quivering with rage, swearing to annihilate the Syndicates if it took his entire lifetime to do it… _wait, actually, it would be simple, if the Coalition could hold out against the Reapers, which seemed a bit unlikely with the ten kilometre Derelict Reaper, a simple redirection of the Reaper fleets should do the job…_ "She doesn't want to see that!" Talitha covered her head with her hands "Don't make her look! Don't look! Stupid, Stupid!"

"I know it hurts, Talitha, I'm sorry." _Yeah, sorry I couldn't have shot more of the squints, that our infantry weapons sacrifice firing rate for stopping power, DPS doesn't do shit good against hordes that you need to mow down…_ "But you need to deal with this." _Just as I need to deal with this monument to the sins I thought I'd put behind me, this monument that stands before me now._ "What happened to them? Think…"

"When she thinks, water comes out of her eyes. The masters beat her when she wastes water, so she doesn't think anymore." Shepard's conscience felt almost sadistically sorry for the next Batarian to get on his bad side, there would be a pulping… "She sees them, Mommy and Daddy, burning in white light, melting, going to pieces, they can't even say anything to her." She grabs her head with her hands, then pried her hands back down with visible mental effort, before continuing "They're dead, Shepard, they try to save her, and the masters burn them… can she stop remembering now? Please?" It was why the Coalition had deployed Civilian Armouries instead of the old hand-out system. After Mindoir, no one ever made away with another Coalition colonist, partly because more comprehensive orbital defence systems had been put into place to blast apart the idiots who weren't too scared of a power that steamrollered the Turian Hierarchy into submission in less than two days.

Shepard nodded "I'm going to take a step toward you now, okay?" If he took two more steps, he'd be in range to either hand her the sedative or whip the gun out of her hand and inject her with it.

"No, she's no good! Don't want to be handled again!" Talitha waved her arms in distress, but didn't do anything else.

Shepard sighed "How did you get here, did you escape?"

Talitha shook her head slowly "She can't escape. They have chains, wires, needles." She gestured with her pistol "You go too far, they take your brains away." Shepard's brain was preparing this upload for the Network even as he spoke _The Batarians have gone too far, it is time for us to take their brains away, by cutting the head off the Syndicates and starting a civil war for power among them, we shall give them what they deserve, Torfan was far too nice._ He appended the note to this part of the recording. "Animals like her come, animals with guns, they make the masters explode. She tried to fix the masters, so they wouldn't be mad at her, she puts all the reds and purples back in, but they don't move, the other animals take her."

"You were afraid, all you'd known for the last four years was your 'masters' abuse, so you tried to heal them." Shepard concluded, he appended the note of "Stockholm Syndrome" to the memory.

"She doesn't want to see the other animals, they're not real, can't be real, they can't see her. If the animals can see her, then this is real, but it can't be, the wires, the chains, the hitting… This doesn't happen to her, it's another girl, a stupid, dirty girl, she deserves it! It… it happens to her, doesn't it?" She lowered her head slowly, shaking it "They see her, so it's real, she doesn't want it to be real…"

Shepard's mind was abuzz with the image of the logo of the Batarian Syndicates on a tattered flag in the wind, followed by thousands of repetitions of "STRATEGIC LAUNCH DETECTED". He had to do something though "I'm going to take a step towards you now, okay?"

"She doesn't want… Don't touch her!" Talitha protested, verbally.

"What's the last thing you remember from Mindoir?" John asked with trepidation, she hoped it wasn't his visor optics as he was suppressed behind his cover by the hail of bullets and his own cowardice toward losing structural fields, his unwillingness to believe in the sheer durability of plating…

"Fires, the smell of smoke and burning meat, animals screaming as the masters cage them, as they put the metal to their backs, the wires in their brains." Cybran circuitry implants were a slow and delicate task, although they'd been weaponized in the form of the CAR (Cybran Assimilator Rifle) said weapon was rarely used and still painful despite its refinement. The crude devices the Batarians used couldn't even guarantee survival… _They have to pay._ Shepard's conscience screamed, Talitha continued "She pretends to be dead, if she's dead, she can't work, but they know, she hopes they'll leave, but they put her in the pen. She didn't fight, she was already broken when they put the wires in." Evidently, the Coalition search-and-rescue teams operating in the Syndicates' space had given her medi-gel to help repair the physical damage.

"You were what? Nine? Ten? No one blames you for staying quiet and hoping they'd go away, the only one blaming you is you." _And the only one blaming me for following doctrine is me, but what good is doctrine if it doesn't get the job done?_

Talitha looked toward the deck "She wants to believe that." She shook her head as she continued "She wants to believe nothing would change, she doesn't want to be there anymore, in the pen, in the cages, lying quiet while they do things to her."

Shepard nodded morosely, he really should have gone all-out close-range ambush style on the Batarian horde… Nanodarts would have been good, despite collateral damage. I'm going to take a step towards you now, okay?

"Please don't touch her, she's dirty, you'll catch it!"

Shepard wasn't stupid, he wasn't about to reveal to her that he had been one of the few Marines at the colony at the time of the attack, one of the useless assholes who'd let her be dragged away. "Talitha, this will make you sleep, if you fall asleep, they'll take you to a place where you can get better."

Talitha looked down at the hypo spray "Will she have bad dreams?"

The Cybran Marine shook his head, wanting to at least give her a comforting hug, but remembering his armour was a bit too angular for that to be comfortable, Aeon armour was better for _that_ task. "You'll dream of a warm place, and when you wake up, you'll be in it."

"I'd like that. It hurts when she… when I remember me, but I want to remember." She pitched forward and Shepard caught her, laying her down carefully before leaving to walk back to Girard.

"Is it over, Commander?" The lieutenant asked.

"She took the sedative, she wants to get better, Lieutenant."

"Thanks, Commander, that means a lot, I didn't want to hurt her, it's just… when I see her curled into a ball, shivering… She was only nine when they took her, why the hell are we stationed on this goddamned station if we couldn't even keep one little girl safe?"

Shepard punched his own armoured glove before looking up "To make the scum who do this pay, it's not just the severity of the punishment that deters crimes, it's the certainty."

"So we clean up the wreckage, shoot the guilty, and hope everyone else learns not to mess with us, great, worked REAL well with the Hierarchy." Girard muttered "Anyway, thank you, Commander."

"Glad to help." Shepard nodded grimly before stalking past toward the Restorer he came on.

* * *

A/N: James' recruitment/loyalty is up next (it's about time…)! And at the rate I'm writing, that'll likely be within two days. I'll remove some of the OP-ness just to be fair and make things a bit more on-edge, but don't expect it to be absurdly hard either. I'll also answer some questions, namely grenades, indirectly, during combat… maybe a codex too.

While you're waiting, if you haven't already, go read The A-Y Chronicles, and don't forget to comment by review (unless it's something really inappropriate for a review) on both this and that.

Thank you for reading!


	35. Fleet and Flotilla

A/N: Did anyone notice something weird with the non-live-ships of the Migrant Fleet? The design is familiar, too familiar. Hence, there will be only seven of the larger ones, dreadnoughts, and the rest shall be smaller, similarly shaped ones, you shall see why… eventually.

Also, please suspend disbelief as to why there is English writing inside a Quarian ship, it's one of the parts of canon I'm changing big time, and will make for a jaw-dropping reveal someday. If you have a clue as to why, please use PM, don't reveal it in a review.

I know I failed at seeming slightly darker than my usual light and happy universe last chapter, but still… I tried (and failed). The Coalition is going to consider invading the Syndicates… AFTER this recruitment and/or double loyalty mission is done with.

* * *

Chapter 35: Fleet and Flotilla

_James Shepard's Heavy Cruiser, January 28, 3871_

"Commander, we have a small problem." Richard Jenkins called from where he was acting as James Shepard's comms officer. He'd been transferred after rehab with his replaced leg and now served under the other Shepard twin, one of the most coveted positions in the Coalition military for junior officers like himself.

21-year-old Commander James Shepard looked up from the paperwork he was dealing with "What is it Jenkins?" Physically, by pre-Quantum Age standards, he looked 23 or 25, as Cybrans or those with Cybran genes matured faster than other factions, but didn't suffer a penalty to lifespan. Though it wasn't like anything had been observed yet, since dying of old age was absurdly rare, though accidents would catch up to you eventually.

"The emergency stasis units you sent over to Tali'Zorah just begun to activate one by one." Jenkins reported.

James punched his own hand "Fuck." He looked up "Send a Corvette" all Coalition Corvettes and Frigates had been upgraded to use Cloak and Active Stealth "Under full stealth and cloak, route its power grid to provide for the stasis units" It wouldn't take much "until I can figure out how to deal with this without causing a diplomatic incident."

* * *

_CSC Normandy, January 28, 3871_

"Tali's got a message from the Migrant Fleet over breakfast, she seemed rather…distraught over it." Kelly said.

John frowned in response "I'll look into it, Kelly."

* * *

_Engineering, CSC Normandy, January 28, 3871_

"Shepard, I'm glad you came by, I may need your help." Tali began working at a different terminal "I just received a message from the Migrant Fleet. The Admiralty Board has accused me of treason."

Shepard picked his jaw off the floor after Tali began looking at him expectantly "What the flying fuck are they getting to? No one with a brain cell to rub against itself would believe you'd betray your people, Tali!"

"I don't know… they don't lay charges like this unless the evidence seems absolute, but thanks, I appreciate your faith in me, Shepard."

"Is it because you're working with the Cybran Nation?" The Migrant Fleet had no idea the Cybran Nation, more specifically, one specific Cybran, was responsible for the lack of pirate attacks over the past two years.

"I'm not technically working with the Cybran Nation, I'm working with you, and I got leave to serve on the Normandy again. I have no idea what they're accusing me of, you'd think I'd remember if I betrayed the Fleet!" Tali snorted at that.

"What happens when a Quarian is accused of treason?"

Tali shrugged "There's a hearing, with members of the Admiralty Board acting as judges." She finished her task and took a few steps away, her back toward Shepard "My father is an admiral on the Board, he'll have to abstain from judgement, I can't even imagine what he's thinking right now." She turned back toward Shepard, her helmet's green mouth light forming her words, following her lips "The punishment for Treason is exile, if they convict me, I can never go back."

"So you have no clue why the fuck they're accusing you?"

"None… though I think Jack's rubbing off on you." Tali looked pointedly at him before continuing "The specifics of charges like this are rarely discussed on open channels. I'll know nothing more before I get to the Flotilla."

"What happens if you're convicted?"

Tali shrugged "Like I said, exile, the specifics are up to the judges. If it's deemed only a tragic mistake in judgement, the guilty party might receive a small ship and supplies." _Though the "small ship" isn't even the size of the Restorer…_ Tali's brain added "Not that it really matters, either way, if I'm convicted, I'll never see the Migrant Fleet again."

Shepard raised an eyebrow (unlike Tali, he didn't usually wear his helmet around the ship) "No prison and no death penalty?"

"We don't have the spare resources for long-term incarceration. Monitored work detail is more effective. The reason no one ever tries to steal a ship these days, the severest crime among my people, was the fact that those caught would go on to be shipped around cleaning sludge tanks and latrines for the rest of their lives, and the Fleet has a LOT of latrines." Tali and Shepard shared a laugh at that before sobering again "We also don't have enough people to afford executions. An exile can still have children, and those children are welcomed back to the Fleet."

Shepard snorted "How often is someone charged with treason?"

"It's rare, it has to affect the entire Flotilla, not just one ship. The most recent one was an engineer who handed over Fleet defence schematics to the Batarians." Shepard gaped at that, and Tali hurriedly added "She had good intentions, the Batarians had been contracted to upgrade our systems, but they passed the schematics to a pirate gang."

"Was she convicted?"

Tali shook her head "No, she made a suicide run on the pirate gang, destroyed them before they could attack the Fleet. She was pardoned… posthumously, let's hope I don't have to prove my innocence that way."

Shepard nodded agreement before pressing "How does the Trial work? How soon do you need to get there?"

"They'll wait a reasonable amount of time for me to come and defend myself, eventually, if I don't show up, they'll try me in abstentia." No one had a clue where that term entered the Quarian language, but it was there, hell, very few words were different between Quarian, Asari and English, and no one had a clue why that was "As for how it works… it's less formal than something you'd see on the Citadel. We're family… this is just the worst form of reunion."

Shepard nodded brusquely "Let's go find the Flotilla."

"I was going to book passage on another ship, I didn't think there would be time for you to help, thank you, Shepard." She walked over to her console "I'll input the Flotilla's current coordinates, the Admirals will be waiting for us."

* * *

_Bridge, CSC Normandy, January 28, 3871_

"We're receiving a transmission from Commander James Shepard, sir, he says it's urgent." Joker reported.

"Patch him through." John called.

A face identical to Shepard's own, despite the now two-year technical age difference, except for the circuitry pattern came onto the screen "John, something terrible must have happened, Tali's father's ship has had stasis units I sent her activate all over it over the last half-hour. Meet me at the coordinates attached, I'm handing command of my Hunter Clutch to my XO, already okayed it with Mom, something's happening in the fleet I'm tasked to screen and I don't like it. Also, you're in command over me once I join up with you, Mom approved that."

John nodded "Got it, James, Joker, rendezvous with James before we approach the Migrant Fleet. Don't tell Tali about her father right away, we'll need her in as relaxed a state as possible for the trial, being too tense is bad." John continued, before briefing James on the trial as the Normandy made the jump.

"Got it." He and his twin exchanged a nod before the transmission cut.

* * *

_Bridge, CSC Normandy, Near Migrant Fleet, January 28, 3871_

"James." Tali said as the airlock opened and another man in Cybran Heavy Armour nearly identical to the man who stood behind her stepped through.

"Tali." James Shepard nodded respectfully, red and green helmet eye-lights watching one another.

A loud facepalm (helmet-palm) interrupted the reunion from behind Tali "We don't have time for this, guys, need to get to the Migrant Fleet, remember?" John reminded them.

They stared at him for a moment before James spoke "Right."

* * *

_Bridge, CSC Normandy, Approaching Migrant Fleet, January 28, 3871_

Seven dreadnoughts and three live-ships made up the core of the Migrant Fleet. No one knew where the Dreadnoughts were from or where they'd been manufactured, but the live-ships had had their bow sections constructed to mimic the dreadnoughts when they'd first been built. Over 50,000 other ships were in the Flotilla, and the vast formation held over 17 million Quarians. Though Quarians on Pilgrimage had visited almost all settled worlds in the galaxy outside Coalition Space, few outsiders had ever stepped foot into the Fleet. The sea of contacts on the Strategic View was almost daunting, but if there was one thing the Coalition knew with ACU warfare, it was that a planet full of defenders wouldn't necessarily be invulnerable to a few infiltrating ACU pilots.

"This is Tali'Zorah vas Neema nar Rayya, requesting permission to dock with the Rayya." Tali spoke in a more clipped tone than she usually did.

The traffic controller was obviously male by his voice "Our system has your ship flagged as Cybran Nation, verify."

"After time adrift among open stars, along tides of light and through shoals of dust, I will return to where I began."

"Permission granted, welcome home, Tali'Zorah." The traffic controller stated.

"We'd like a security and Quarantine team to meet us, our ship is not clean." Tali stated as Joker brought the Normandy to an abrupt halt one hundred kilometres from the Rayya.

"Understood, approach exterior docking cradle 17 with your shuttle." The Normandy itself was too impractically huge for direct docking.

* * *

_Live-Ship Rayya, Migrant Fleet, January 28, 3871_

"I don't think it's a good idea to bring…" the "Legion with its helmet off" part died on Tali's lips as Legion came flashlight-to-barrel with the assault rifles of numerous Marines.

Captain Kar'Danna himself was glaring at them as Shepard, Legion, Tali, Mirala, James and Urz thudded their way onto his ship with impacts of armoured feet (impact dampeners off for show). "Get that damned thing off my ship before you start a diplomatic incident!"

Shepard gestured with his helmet "horns" toward Legion "The Geth is with me, I'll take responsibility for it."

"The hell you will!" Kar'Danna's visor got close enough to Shepard to potentially fall victim to a good headbutt before he drew back "This is my ship, if it goes hostile, it's my responsibility. I want no part of it! I'm letting you aboard as a favour to Tali, the Geth is too much, leave it on your shuttle."

"This is your ship, and I'm a guest, but Legion is part of my crew, and unless you want to shoot all of us, or at least try to, we're all coming onboard."

"Or I could kick you all off, no one here likes Geth or Cybrans, I can't guarantee your safety." Kar'Danna explained, waving his marines to stand down.

"I can guide them away form the more militant elements of the crew." Tali stated, knowing perfectly well it wasn't the Normandy plus James party she was worried about the safety of.

"There are a lot more militants these days, Tali'Zorah, and given the charges against you, it's only been getting worse."

"What do you mean?" Tali's green helmet optics showed one raised eyebrow.

"They're charging you with bringing active Geth into the Fleet as part of a secret project."

Tali's mouth light dropped wide open for a few moments before she closed it and began speaking again "That's insane! I never brought active Geth onboard! I only sent parts and pieces." She stepped up between the two Shepard brothers.

John was the one to round on her "You sent Geth materials to the Migrant Fleet?"

"Yes, my father was working on a project, he needed the materials. If I sent back something that was only damaged, not permanently inactive… no, no, I checked everything, I was careful."

"Technically, I'm under orders to place Tali'Zorah under arrest pending the hearing, so Tali…" There was a rustling before every single weapon John James and Mirala could wield at once, in John's case a GLMG and LBR, James a Sonic Pulse Shotgun and LBR, and Mirala's case a Temporal Fizz Launcher, was out and levelled, more or less the same happening on the Quarian side. Of course, Urz's gigantic forearm claws were also fully extended and the Devouring One was growling loudly in threat. James could have sworn he saw Tali's optics sweat-drop out of the corner of his eye, and could swear the same would be happening to Kar'Danna if he could see the man's face right now. "You're confined to this ship until this trial is over."

"Thank you, captain." Tali nodded as she waved the Shepard brothers, the Ardat-Yakshi and the Devouring One down, the Quarian marines following suit hesitantly.

"Preparations got underway as soon as you arrived, the hearing's in the garden plaza, good luck, Tali."

* * *

They walked through the claustrophobic halls, observing quietly, listening to the opinions of the crowds. "I can't believe they're charging Tali'Zorah with such a thing!" "The captain let a Geth onto the ship! I'm lodging a complaint…" and such were only a few of the opinions they heard as they walked along, their feet making no sound as they had turned on the impact dampeners.

"Legion, keep your helmet off, if these guys can't get over you then screw them. If anyone tries anything stupid though, put it on at earliest opportunity." John stated authoritatively. James glared at his twin but kept his mouth shut, even though he was thinking: _That won't help Tali you asshole!_

"Acknowledged, Shepard-Commander." Legion nodded.

"There's one of the Admirals." Tali said, highlighting the Quarian woman in question on their HUDs. "We should talk to her."

Shala spotted them and concluded her conversation with another Quarian woman before turning to them "Tali'Zorah vas Normandy, I'm glad you came, I could delay them only so long."

"Auntie Raan!" Tali and the older woman shared a hug before Tali introduced the rest of the crew "Shepard… John, James, this is Admiral Shala'Raan vas Tonbay, a friend of my father's… wait, Raan, you called me 'vas Normandy'…"

"I'm afraid I did, Tali. The Board moved to have you tried under that name, given your departure from the Neema." Shala stated matter-of-factly.

"You're an admiral, does that mean you're one of the judges?"

Shala shook her head "I'm afraid not, my history with Tali and her father forced me to recuse myself."

Tali spoke next, making the other four squad members collectively look at her "I imagine Father had to do the same."

Shala bowed her head slightly "You'll see inside, Tali. For my part, I moderate and ensure that the rules of protocol are followed, but I have no vote in the judgement."

"I take it being associated with a human name is a bad sign?" James ventured.

"They stripped me of my ship name." Tali gestured toward herself "That's as good as declaring me exiled already."

Shala shook her head again "It's not over yet, Tali, you still have friends who know you as Tali'Zorah vas Neema, whatever we must call you legally."

"I guess we should get started then…" James looked toward John, who nodded agreement, before continuing "Does Tali have a defence counsellor, someone who speaks for her side?"

Shala sounded rather amused "Indeed she does, Captain John Shepard, she's part of your crew now, recognized under Quarian law. An accused is always represented by his or her ship's captain."

Tali scratched the back of her helmet awkwardly "So, er… you would actually speak for my defence."

"I'll do everything I possibly can to help you, Tali." John nodded.

"Thank you, Shepard… John, I could not ask for a better counsellor."

"Our legal rules are simple, there are no legal tricks or political loopholes you need worry about." Shala added to help John with the burden of the job. "Present the truth as best you can, it will have to be enough, now come, I promised I would not delay you."

* * *

_Garden Plaza, Live-Ship Rayya, Migrant Fleet, January 28, 3871_

"Nice aesthetics." Mirala commented, trying to break the silence.

"What?" James had just finished hissing "Please don't mess up" to John over private comm.

"I said, Nice Aesthetics for an indoor space." Mirala repeated slowly as if talking to a dimwit as the party assembled for the trial, drawing the attention of the Quarians hanging out in the area. The Shepard twins noted the wall writing was in English, probably a sign of respect for the only other group to have such advanced AI ability, just before Shala called the meeting to order.

"This Conclave is brought to order." John was reminded of the Protoss Conclave that had been destroyed years ago, apparently, the Quarians hanging out here were all part of the Conclave, as they were sitting on the curved benches around the podium "Blessed are the ancestors who kept us alive, sustained us and enabled us to reach this season, Keelah se'lai. The accused, Tali'Zorah vas Normandy, has come with her captain to defend herself against the charge of treason."

One of the male admirals raised an arm and pointed at Legion "Security, a Geth is present in the courtroom! Does Tali'Zorah think to affect this hearing with threats?" John took an instant dislike for the inglorious bosh'tet, and he had a feeling he'd be even more annoying later.

"Captain Danna…" Shala had just started when a voice cut her off.

_Ah, typical, men are still idiots, even for Quarians, I should have guessed…_ All the Quarians were looking around for the speaker before Urz waved a wickedly sharp and long forearm blade in the air _Hello? I'm over here!_ The crowd all gasped as they looked at the armoured creature _Sorry if I annoyed you…_ he said sheepishly before putting his blade down and accidentally cutting a groove in the floor when he folded it back along his forearm's long sheath. _Uh, oops… Shepard, and I mean John, you mind fixing that?_ The crowd burst into laughter at the combination of statements and antics while Shepard bent down to smooth over the groove with some omni-gel and lathing work.

Shala blinked noticeably behind her visor "Uh… anyways, the Rayya's captain allowed the guess aboard, do you intend to second-guess him, Admiral Koris?"

Koris bowed his head slightly "Objection withdrawn…"

"Shepard vas Normandy, your crew member Tali'Zorah stands accused of treason, will you speak for her?"

Shepard gripped the railing before him in his spiked fists, leaning on it slightly, the Conclave gasping as the metal tube warped under his strength, augmented by armour "If it helps Tali, I will, but in her heart, she remains Tali'Zorah vas Neema, a proud member of the Migrant Fleet, I regret that her captain is forbidden to stand at her side today."

"Nobody has been forbidden from anything! It is a simple…" James thought the guy had the maturity of a two-year-old Cybran, or perhaps that was an overestimate… He sent the message over with his implants, and John sent back an agreement.

"Lie to them if you must, Zaal'Koris, but don't lie to me and expect me to stay silent! The human is right!" Gerrel butted in, glaring at his fellow male admiral.

Shala put her hands on the railing before her and loomed over the two idiots as she called "Admirals, please, Shepard's willingness to represent Tali'Zorah in this hearing is appreciated." She leaned back. "Tali, you are accused of bringing active Geth to the Migrant Fleet, what say you?"

"How could Tali bring Geth to the Fleet while serving on the Normandy?" John asked, crossing his arms before his chest plate.

"To clarify, Shepard." Xen spoke for the first time "Tali isn't accused of bringing back entire units, only parts that could spontaneously reactivate…"

Tali began speaking "I would never send active Geth to the Fleet! Everything I sent was deactivated and harmless!" John leaned back, leaving two segments of the railing crushed to a smaller calibre under his hands.

"Then explain how Geth seized the lab ship your father was working on!" Koris asked, crossing his arms over his chest. The conclave began talking among them at that point.

"What are you talking about, what happened?" Tali asked, obviously frantic over the news. James rubbed his forehead, how was he going to explain this?

Gerrel actually presented the news "As far as we can tell, Tali, the Geth have killed everyone on the Alarei, your father included…"

"What? No…" Tali sounded distressed, so James stepped up to the batter's plate.

"I appreciate the need for the trial, Admirals, but now we must concern ourselves with the safety of the Migrant Fleet, we have a full Hunter Clutch from my side ready to stand by, what say you, brother?" He turned to John.

A shrug was followed by "The Normandy's ground crew will serve as all the Marines we'll need."

Shala nodded "Thank you, Quarian strike teams have attempted to reclaim the ship… thus far without success."

"Shepard, we have to take back the Alarei." Tali suddenly realized she wasn't sure which twin she was talking to until her eyes settled on James, recognized by his armour's slightly different paint job.

"The safest course would be to simply destroy the ship, but if you are looking for an honourable death instead of exile…" Koris trailed off.

"I'm looking for my father, you bosh'tet!" Tali pointed at the man.

"You intend to retake the Alarei from the Geth? This proposal is extremely dangerous…" Shala silenced the masses.

Mirala had amped up the noise on her shotgun, apparently, since a sudden humming of the Laser Battle Rifle Mk 3 coming online plus the screech of approval from Urz was heard throughout the large room. "We're with you all the way, Tali!" the Ardat-Yakshi called, raising a fist much as Urz was raising a fist.

"With your permission, Admirals, yes, the good of the Fleet comes first." John said calmly, how many times had "The good of the Coalition" or "the good of the Cybran Nation" been spoken before? He didn't care to know "Tali needs to find her father."

"Agreed, and if you die on this worthy mission, Tali, we'll see to it that your name is cleared of these charges." Gerrel said, nodding.

Koris glanced at his colleague "We can discuss that later."

Shala cut them off before the bickering could restart "The it is decided, you will attempt to retake the Alarei. You are hereby given leave to depart the Rayya, a shuttle will be waiting at the secondary docking bay hangar. Be safe Tali, this hearing will resume upon your return, or upon determination that you have been killed in action."

While the Conclave scattered for the time being, Tali opened squad comms with "Thank you, John, for agreeing to take back the Alarei, the admirals sound sure that my father must be dead, but…" She looked toward James "I hope the stasis units you gave me for my father's crew were good for something… but I don't know, we won't know until we get there."

"Don't worry, the original crew is mostly alive, but in stasis." James stated. "I can't tell who's who, but… how are you holding up? They threw a lot of shit at you before hitting you with the news about your father."

Tali shrugged "I knew this would be bad, but I guess you're never really prepared to be charged with treason… and my father… I don't know, he could still be alive, they don't know for certain he's dead, we don't know either, James, I need to find out."

"Alright… is there anyone here you want to talk to before we go?" John asked as James nodded.

"We can talk with the admirals, see their viewpoints… but I doubt we'll change anyone's mind by chatting with them privately."

John nodded "Alright, let's move."

"The sooner we get to the Alarei, the sooner we can know what happened." Tali said.

"EDI, where's the hangar?" John asked.

"Shepard, the secondary hangar is through the conclave chamber you are in now, the shuttle they have provided is unarmed. Whatever Geth are on the Alarei have most likely built more, expect heavy resistance. With the new upgrades to Geth hardware, they may actually pose a minor threat." EDI's ball avatar vanished from the transmission box.

They heard a Quarian talk while they passed "Loyalty to the Fleet is about more than just killing Geth, Tali'Zorah's guilty." He was saying, before they recognized another Quarian standing nearby, Veetor'Nara to be specific.

"Shepard? How did you get onto the Rayya?" Veetor turned away from the woman he was talking to before.

"Shepard's here to help with my trial, well, both of the Shepard twins…"

Veetor blinked before nodding "Oh yes, I heard about that, I hope you didn't really do what they said you did."

Tali shook her head, mouth light grinning at Veetor's relatively normal speech pattern "No, Veetor, I would never endanger the Fleet."

"Oh, well, good, so, can I help you with anything? I mean, probably not, but you helped me." Veetor was starting to sound like Mordin now with the speed.

James spoke up "Tali could use some friends right now, would you be willing to tell the admirals how she helped you?"

"No, I mean yes, but I already did! They came to see me, I didn't want to talk in a crowd." He was starting to sound… troubled, again, and so James took a step back.

Dr. Elan'Shiya, according to her transponder tag, explained "Veetor is doing well, but he isn't ready for a public speech just yet."

Veetor was bouncing on his feet much as a human would, but with only three toes. He was like a human minus the middle and index toes… and the foot bones linking to those toes. "I talked to them, so did that soldier, Kal'Reegar, we both told them about how you helped us, I hope it helped."

"I'm sure you did, Veetor, thank you." Tali said, being careful not to agitate the man further.

"Do you remember anything new about the Collectors? Anything at all?" John pressed for information.

"Nothing new, I'm sorry, Every time I go back to that place in my mind I…" He grabbed his helmet "I…"

"Veetor, come back, it's okay…" The doctor soothed, and Veetor put his hands down before continuing.

"I want to help, but I can't, I didn't see anything, and what I remember…"

Tali cut him off "Don't worry, Veetor, we're going to find the things that did this, and we're going to kill them."

"Good, thank you…" Veetor wrung his hands together.

John spoke up again "Take care of yourself, Veetor, not many" non-Coalition people, that is "could have gone through what you did and come out sane."

"I know… I didn't, but thank you, Commander, it's only because of your help that I've come this far." He turned back and resumed his conversation with the doctor as Shepard and co turned to leave.

* * *

A/N: This is getting annoying, so if I say Shepard, it's John, unless it is blatantly otherwise i.e. only James or Hannah is around.

* * *

"Tali'Zorah, given the circumstances are you sure speaking to me is appropriate?" Admiral Daro'Xen asked leisurely as they approached, crossing her arms over her chest, which was noted by James to be much smaller than Tali's, which seemed to have grown since he last saw her face-to-face…

Tali growled before starting "I'm looking for information on the Alarei, I don't intend to bribe you in the middle of the plaza… Admiral." She nearly spat the last word.

"And what a wonderful specimen this is. Geth shell over standard mech interior inside Coalition Marine Armour, or did you convince a Geth to work with you?"

"Legion is working with me voluntarily, it's part of my team."

"It has a name… fascinating." She crossed her arms, propping one elbow on the other hand and stroking her mouthpiece as if studying the Geth platform in question "The things I could learn under slightly different circumstances…"

"This platform is not available for experimentation." Legions stated.

"Charming, I am pleased to see the humans at least have not abandoned synthetics, this whole trial is a farce borne of fear." Daro'Xen growled the last part.

James was getting impatient "Can you tell us anything about the Alarei?"

The woman crossed her arms again "Little, we detected several comm. signatures before the Geth jammed our systems. Given the likely networked intelligence requirements for taking over a ship, expect between ten and fifty units." Best thing ever about the Cybran Network was that it was good to have but not needed for op efficiency.

Tali seemed shocked "Then… this can't have anything to do with me, I only sent parts and pieces, and certainly not enough to make THAT many Geth."

"Sounds like your ideas on synthetics are in the minority." James pressed the talkative woman for intel.

Xen nodded "Yes, at least on the Admiralty Board, Han'Gerrel sees an enemy that must be crushed, Zaal'Koris would run away and hide on some new colony world, Shala'Raan is still undecided. I HAD thought Rael to be firmly in Han's camp, but if his experiments were on active Geth, then perhaps we have ideas in common."

"If we don't find Rael alive, what do you think will happen?"

"The power balance will be disrupted, Han'Gerrel loses a vote for his foolish and self-destructive war. That would favour peace then, as Shala'Raan is too careful to risk her won neck. But if the admiral replacing Rael agrees with me… things could become very exciting."

James was about ready to shoot something. Slimy politicians being at the top of the hunting list. "You support experiments on living creatures."

"Rael should have felt no more guilt performing experiments on Geth than I did while performing surgery on a childhood toy."

Even Urz looked taken aback by that, judging by the distressed whimper he gave and the way he hid behind John's legs, peering out at the psycho woman who was, to him, worse than Jack. Tali spoke first "The fact that you performed surgery on your childhood toys explains a great deal, Admiral."

"A ship travels faster than I can, with the right programming, it can choose locations, even defend itself against attacks, but it is only a machine." Coalition units couldn't decide where to go other than course-plotting, but they could fire back and pursue enemies if set to do it. "It was built for the sole purpose of serving its master and can be dismantled whenever its master desires."

John was thinking back to history class and what the Earth Empire thought of Cybrans, secretly glad James didn't like history class much and didn't pay enough attention, or with his more impulsive nature they'd have a dead Admiral on their hands by now. He asked his own question "If you're not interested in this trial, why not recuse yourself?"

Xen snorted "And let that aging warship Han'Gerrel and the cowardly Zaal'Koris be the ones to chart this course? I think not. The broader purpose underlying this trial is too important, Tali'Zorah is only peripherally related, no offence intended."

"What is the true purpose of this trial, Admiral?" Tali asked, hoping that she'd be enough of the "mad villain" to reveal all her plans.

"To determine whether Quarians should fear their past mistakes, or reclaim our glory using our natural affinity for artificial intelligence." Xen explained. John was thinking _Yeah, sure, and the Earth Empire thought just because Brackman used to work for and be funded by them they could crush his brainchild, the Symbionts, and that resulted in a thousand-year war with the Earth Empire's collapse in between._

"So the only reason you care about this is because Rael might have learned something valuable from the Geth?" John concluded.

"Indeed, and if he has, then even in this accident we may find something worthwhile."

"You want to create new AIs?" Tali was growing more alarmed by the second.

"No, Tali'Zorah, I wish to return the Geth to the control of their rightful masters, the Quarian race!" Xen spread her arms dramatically.

"Geth behavioural changes from 'hacking' only last until programs are restored from archival copy, we judge this plan unsound, creator admiral." Legion stated.

Tali turned her head, her green helmet lights meeting Legion's flashlight head "For once, Legion, we agree."

"We shall see, marvellous machine… we shall see." Xen replied.

"Thank you for the information." John said quickly.

"It was a pleasure to meet you, Commander." Xen nodded as they left.

They backpedalled from the mad woman (Mirala: "How the flying fuck did the Quarians let a whack job like that become an ADMIRAL?" Urz: _I think someone must die for the interest of galactic peace… why are you all looking over at the mad woman again?_) Then they turned to nearly run smack-dab into a male Quarian in a familiar red enviro-suit. "Kal'Reegar?" Tali asked sceptically, the other male talking to Kal gestured with his head for Kal to talk to Tali first, his stuff could wait. "What they do with the data we got? And where's Owen? Don't you two generally stick together? He did make it off Haestrom…"

"Damndest thing, it's just like they said, no way the sun on Haestrom should have been acting that way." Kal answered "Owen is alright, by the way."

"So that dark energy theory is right? That's troubling…"

Kal shrugged "Can't really comment on that, ma'am, I just shoot things."

John frowned "What are you doing aboard the Rayya? It sounds like you gave your report to the Admiralty Board already."

Kal scratched the back of his helmet "I, uh, showed to argue the charges against Tali'Zorah, I've served with her and she deserves better than what she's getting."

"Thanks, Kal." Tali said gratefully.

"Just stating facts, ma'am." Kal rocked on his feet as he said so.

"Had any luck talking to the admirals?" James pushed for information, it could help Tali's case… that was what mattered right now.

"You're… oh yes, Commander James Shepard, Tali talked about you all the time." Kal shook the other man's hand. "Admiral Raan asked my opinion on the Geth, since I fought them on Haestrom. She and Admiral Gerrel are hoping you'll kill a bunch of Geth to get the crowd on your side, and then find evidence to clear your name. They were hesitant, but, well, you don't have many other options, ma'am. I recommend getting you onto the Alarei, with your tech, you should be able to handle them, even though they've begun upgrading themselves, and the shuttle only fits four at best… your pet… creature could maybe squeeze in."

"I'll stay behind." Mirala said quickly, looking between James and Tali with a knowing smile, then smirking at Legion, it would do the Geth good to "build consensus" with other Geth.

"You did the right thing, thank you." Tali bowed slightly, in a surprisingly human-like gesture.

"You said your mission had something to do with dark energy?" John asked, it wasn't case-relevant but could be important.

Kal started pacing "Right, remember that damned sun on Haestrom? Shorted out everything," It had slowed the squad's shield recharge rate, but not much else, though John had to agree with the next point "way too much radiation? The sun's getting old… only it's not. Dark energy, it's reducing the mass of the star's interior, techs are worried…"

"Do you think the Geth are responsible for what's happening to Haestrom's sun?" John pressed urgently, this could be critical, hell, it could even start a trend of building habitations in deep space powered by Paragons if it got out.

"Keelah, I hope not, if they can screw up a star, our chances in a war are even worse than I thought…" The only weapon thus far known to be able to destroy stars was Black Sun, the projections had put it at capable of shattering twenty-plus planets in one shot. Fortunately, it was never fired that way.

Tali shook her head "I don't think this is the Geth, it would take massive time and resources to affect a star like this deliberately. It's too inefficient to be a weapon, and even the Geth…" She slowed down as she realized one galactic superpower which could do without star systems if need be… Paragons really could pull some weight for habitations… "wouldn't destroy a useful star system, besides, they didn't show up until we did."

Kal shrugged "Hope you're right, ma'am. Synthetic bastards are bad enough as is."

"What does the dark energy build-up mean? Something we should be worried about?" John continued.

"Sorry, Shepard, I don't know what it means, just that it has the scientists worried…"

"Hopefully it's isolated… some rare phenomenon, if dark energy can destabilize stellar material… Probably not something to worry about right now, but resources in this galaxy are scarce enough without stars suddenly going dead."

Kal sighed "Some days, I think flying around in the Fleet without a planet of our own is the right idea…"

Now that business was over with, John could ask a personal question "How have you been, Reegar? You took a beating on Haestrom."

The Marine shrugged "Physical damage wasn't bad, and I was only down for about half a week with infection thanks to your medi-gel. Figure I got off easy, didn't have to face those admirals."

John frowned "With your immune systems" or near-lack thereof, except for Tali, whose armour had slowly hardened her against infections "It couldn't be easy for Quarians to fight a war, you'd lose more to infection than injury."

"We can't afford a front line attack, that's for sure, have to fight smart… ideally from orbit."

Tali frowned, or her helmet lights did "We do have stockpiles of antibiotics, it's not as though everyone would die from a single shot."

Kal shook his head "No, Shepard's right, you've only seen our strike ops, Tali, and your medi-gel dispenser and engineering suite are almost miraculous. We don't have all that fancy equipment in a frontline assault, supplies get strained, things get ugly fast."

"Alright, we should get going." James cut in after Kal finished, nodding respectfully toward the Marine.

"Good luck on the Alarei, stay safe out there." Kal said to them before continuing his conversation with the Quarian he was talking to before.

* * *

"You set me up, Shala!" Tali towered over her "aunt" in her green and ivory armour. The woman who had been talking to Shala backed off at the interruption and the sudden appearance of the intimidating armour. "You told Captain Danna not to say anything! I didn't hear my father may have died until I was in the trial, WHY?" Tali's optic lights had turned into green flame patterns and her suit speakers emitted burning noises.

"The admirals needed to hear the shock in your voice, or they may not have let you attempt to retake the Alarei." Shala explained "That is your best chance to recover evidence to exonerate you, I'm sorry, we cannot afford sensitivity, Tali."

The only reasons Shala was not currently held up by the throat by James was that she was a family friend of Tali's, made some modicum of sense, and was an admiral of the Migrant Fleet. Still, he accused her indignantly "I know you were trying to help her, Admiral, but that was too far." He growled.

Shala smirked under her ask, Tali could tell, but why the hell that was she wasn't entirely sure… "She has no one else to speak for her, James Shepard. I'm doing everything in my power, that's what her father would have wanted."

Tali's speakers roared with crackling flame again "don't say that! He could still be alive, likely is, on that ship!"

Shala shrugged "You should get to the Alarei soon, anything else I can tell you?"

"What can you tell us about the Alarei?"

"It's based on the designs of the dreadnoughts we found buried beneath the earth, like most Quarian-designed ships, but I can't tell you much else, Rael only said he was researching new defence technology."

Tali frowned deeply "He told me only that he needed any Geth parts or pieces I found, I assumed he was testing weapons on Geth components."

Shala nodded and continued "We knew nothing until the Alarei sent a distress signal, then went dead, we didn't even know about the Geth until a boarding team was attacked."

"You're saying there's no data on the inside of the ship." James Shepard stated flatly.

"That's exactly what I'm saying. The marines who survived and escaped saw bodies in the halls, we must assume the worst." Shala said quietly.

"No we don't." Tali's voice was harder and colder than either Shepard had ever heard her being. Even Shala was taken aback, the last time she'd heard that voice from Tali was when her mother was dying… right. That made perfect sense.

"How long have you known Tali's family?" John asked curiously.

"Since before Rael was an admiral, 25 or 30 years, I believe. I was there when Tali was born, her mother and I had synced up our suits so we could be in the same open-air room. I was sick for a week, but it was worth it. I was the one who took Tali from her mother and put her in the bubble, she cried so hard."

"I don't understand, you put your children in bubbles?" John inquired, the mental image of Quarian babies, looking startlingly like human or Asari, drifting around in soap bubbles running around his head.

"Environmental units, it's a step between relying on a mother's immune system through nursing and getting a suit of one's own." John, James and Mirala listened avidly while the Ardat-Yakshi scribbled down notes on her pad.

"The bubbles let parents take their children out of the clean rooms safely, we don't wear suits until adolescence." Tali added.

Shala nodded and finished with "There's a celebration when a child gets her first suit, it's a coming of age."

"I'm not hearing much about Rael's involvement in Tali's life…" James' eye lights were slitted dangerously and flashing with the blood-red glow associated with the Cybran Nation.

Shala scratched the back of her helmet, apparently Quarians, Asari and Humans shared much of their body language "It's difficult to explain… I shouldn't…"

Tali shushed her honorary aunt "It's all right, Aunt Shala, no secrets between ship-mates, I think I told John and James about my father…"

"If you say so… Rael was… committed to the Quarian cause, didn't leave him a lot of time for his family. He wanted to give Tali and her mother the home world, or a strong Fleet, at least, that was how he showed his love."

James had a mental image of him holding up a male Quarian and informing him that the Fleet existed for the Quarian people, not the other way around, and they didn't survive only to dedicate their souls to the Fleet… but back to business… for now. "What kind of evidence will carry weight with the admirals?" He pressed for information.

Shala looked to Tali's green and white helmet face "Tali, you admitted to sending Geth parts to your father for his project."

Tali's green mouth light opened wide "Yes, but never anything that could come back online on its own, I took every possible precaution!"

"Then find records of your shipments and experiments, something that proves you were careful, something that proves that this is all just a terrible accident that nobody could have foreseen." Shala spread her hands helplessly.

"There seemed to be some other arguments going on among the admirals." James commented lightly.

Shala sighed and ran a hand over the decorative cloth she wore on her helmet "You caught that… yes, the Geth presence makes this a touchy issue. The Admiralty Board is trying to determine whether to focus on Colonial Development… or attempt to retake the home world."

Tali gaped "You're thinking of war? With the Geth?"

Raan shook her head sadly "I'm not, but others are."

John snorted "I recognise the Migrant Fleet is strong, but even you can't take on the Geth." Sure, rumour had it the Quarians owned the seven most powerful dreadnoughts in the galaxy, but they didn't have the industrial capacity to battle the Geth.

"We grow tired of wandering the stars, Shepard, we want our world back, we have paid enough for our mistake… I'm not giving you my opinion, I'm telling you which way the wind is blowing."

James shook his head, having been briefed long ago in a PM from John, right after his twin had recruited Legion "The Geth situation isn't as simple as you think, not all of them worship the Reapers."

Shala shook her head "I don't think the other admirals would care about that, they want the home world back, and they want all Geth destroyed."

Tali frowned "Shala, don't you want to see us retake the homeworld?"

Shala sighed "I don't think we can, Tali, at least, not on your own, but it may not be about what I think…"

"Thanks for the help, Admiral, we should get going…"

Shala nodded her head "Good luck on the Alarei." She said before turning back to the woman she had been talking to before.

The group approached Han'Gerrel for information next, being met with "Tali! I'm glad Raan got you leave to hit the Alarei, hopefully you'll find something that clears your name."

"I'm more concerned with finding my father, Admiral." Tali said bluntly.

Han shrugged "I wish you luck, blow up some Geth along the way…" He looked toward John, who had removed his helmet "And you're Captain Shepard?"

"Well, my twin brother's over here, so I'm Commander _John_ Shepard."

"Ah, twins, rare among my people, but I forget myself, Admiral Han'Gerrel vas Neema." HE inclined his head politely before continuing "You got Admiral Koris backing up worse than a Krogan toilet, it's good to see Tali's Captain knows how to handle a courtroom."

John shrugged, pointedly glancing at his brother "We're just here to help Tali, Admiral."

"You believe I'm innocent, don't you, Admiral?" Tali asked, her green eye lights wide with hope.

Han sighed "I know you and your father, you've put too much of yourselves into this Fleet to do anything to jeopardize its safety, and you're both smart enough not to make mistakes like the ones they said you made…"

"Can you tell us anything about the Alarei?" John asked.

Gerrel shook his head "Nothing good, we sent some of our best Marines into that hellhole, damn few came back. Whatever Rael was doing, it blew up in his face, the ship's crawling with Geth, don't expect survivors."

Tali glanced at James, shutting up his snicker at the "don't expect survivors" part before she stepped forward toward Gerrel "Admiral! My father, your friend, is on that ship!"

Gerrel sighed and ran a hand up his visor and over his helmet "I know that, Tali, but if Shala hadn't suggested you might volunteer, we'd already have destroyed the Alarei, that's where we stand right now…"

"Can you tell us about the other admirals? Anything that can help change their minds about Tali?" James asked for the first time he spoke in this exchange.

Gerrel nodded "The one you didn't recognize, Tali, is Admiral Xen, she's on the fence, and she takes fleet safety very seriously. On the other hand, she's always been interested in studying the Geth, I hope she sees the benefits of Rael's research. Admiral Koris is the same whining suit-wetter he always was." Gerrel snorted derisively.

James was already slightly alarmed, if the Migrant Fleet's Admiralty Board was fragmented like this… they wouldn't be able to do shit if an attack came! Hell, he could probably jump in his ships and cover the Alarei with their shields if he had to and they'd take long enough to decide something that he could blow up half the fleet! "You disagree with Admiral Koris' policies, I'm guessing? Or is it personal?" He ventured, careful not to let the worry show.

Gerrel punched his own palm, and the twins suddenly figured out why Quarians were not good at hand-to-hand, since it was like a human with the middle and ring fingers chopped off, the fist wasn't good for punching. "The man is a damn Geth apologist, thinks we were wrong for trying to destroy them centuries ago. He wants us to search for new colony possibilities instead of taking back the homeworld. Any research on the Geth makes him angry, you don't have much of a chance with him, I'm afraid."

After they found out about Han and Rael's history, James cut in with "It sounds more like we're dealing with politics than just Tali bringing back equipment."

Gerrel nodded "You noticed that, didn't you? Tali's father wasn't just running weapons tests on the Geth for fun. He was looking for something to give us an edge when we attack the Geth in a full-scale war."

_Sadly you guys more or less gave up the biggest edge you could have ever gotten when you never responded to our broadcast for all galactic powers interested in opening relations with us to send envoys…_ John thought vindictively as Tali spoke "I know Father wanted to retake the home world someday, but are we that close?"

Gerrel shrugged "I don't know, kid, we almost had the votes, we just need to give people hope for victory."

"I hope the Quarian people find someplace to live, Admiral, but it sounds like you're playing with fire." James said lightly, sarcastically.

"We're too comfortable now, James Shepard, and before you ask Tali spent her spare time talking about you, I could recite your interest in Quarians in my sleep…" Gerrel chuckled as James flushed pink, before growing serious again "We're too comfortable now, Shepard, we've got the largest fleet in the galaxy, and we're riding around doing nothing."

Tali frowned "We might need that fleet to help fight the Reapers, Admiral."

"Then we need a world to shelter our non-combatants while we do it."

John Shepard snorted "The Geth on your homeworld aren't the same ones that worked with Saren, they have different factions."

"Good, maybe some of them will kill each other, fewer for us to deal with." John thought back to a famous quote by an Earth Empire general regarding the existence of different Cybran Nodes. It had proven right later with the Seven Hand, in the worst way possible. "The only Geth that matter to me are the ones who took away our world."

"Thank you for the information." John said, he had a bad feeling James would have come up with something ruder.

"Hang in there kid." Gerrel said to Tali as they walked by.

"Thank you, Admiral."

* * *

The last guy to talk to looked like a polychromatic toy with his colourful suit. "Judging by your ability to play to a crowd, humans, I have done Tali a favour by stripping vas Neema from her name."

Tali gestured toward the man with a three-fingered white and green armoured hand "Shepard, James, this is Admiral Zaal'Koris vas Qwib-Qwib. Do NOT ask about the name."

"I take no pleasure in this, Tali, truly, but you have greatly endangered and dishonoured our fleet…" Zaal'Koris's mask suddenly became a prime target area for James Shepard's spiked fist, at least, James thought it would make a good target, and took one ominous black and red armoured step forward with his spikes extended.

John held up a hand in front of his twin, sensing the violent vibes rising off his brother, making James shake his head and step back. "Can you tell me anything about the Alarei?"

Zaal'Koris seemed unaware of how close he came to a sudden and painful death "Only that you should have let us destroy it." James bristled again, he would have jumped in his Hunter Clutch and ship-napped the vessel if need be. "When we find the evidence of what Tali and her father did there, any hope of convincing the other admirals will die." A low growl came from where James was standing, and everyone looked at Urz, who was glaring at the Admiral. No one suspected it was James that made the vicious, feral growling noise.

Tali took a white and green armoured step forward, pointing at the Admiral with her index finger "I did not bring active Geth to the Fleet, Admiral. I know how dangerous that would be! I only brought pieces!" Tali's hand was twitching toward her flamethrower, eager to grip, extend and fire it at any time.

"The captured ship, with its crew slaughtered by living beings in pain, belies your argument."

"You have a ship named Qwib-Qwib?" John said flatly, still watching his twin from behind his locked-optics helmet faceplate.

Tali facepalmed "Here we go…"

Zaal'Koris crossed his arms behind his back and spread his feet slightly "Our people have, during difficult periods, purchased pre-owned vessels from other cultures! And… have on occasion had difficulty altering the ship's registry information!" Tali sighed at the speech, while James was wondering why they didn't paint a different name on the hull, proclaim it to be called something else, then went with that… "The citizens of these foreign-named ships have borne the stigma of these names with grace and honour!"

"If it bothers you, find another ship!" John suggested.

"I've occasionally entertained the idea of requesting a transfer… something with a nice, respectable name, like the Defranz" He didn't know that name had been a prank, and few non-medical personnel in the Fleet noticed it "or the Iktomi." That had been on purpose by the crew as a laugh to compete with the Deferens… unfortunately, it had been right before the Migrant Fleet formed, and the pranksters didn't have time to change it back. Few noticed, as sterility was NOT a desired trait in a refugee fleet. "But I am proud of the Qwib-Qwib, and I will not flee because of petty insults."

James finally pried John's arm down "What is your problem with my brother's crew member, Admiral?" He growled.

"I respect Tali immensely, her actions against Saren are to be lauded. But like her father, she wants nothing but the destruction of the Geth, the people we created, the people we wronged." Koris finished softly, as if in repentance.

"The Geth drove us from our home world!" Tali said, as if it explained everything, in a way, it did.

Koris snorted "Of course they did, we tried to kill them!"

"You and the other admirals seem to have some disagreements beyond Tali's trial, Admiral." James continued, balling and relaxing his fists, his spikes-extended fists.

Koris nodded "You are correct. Tali, I apologize for it being brought into your proceedings. The other admirals are pushing for war, Rael'Zorah was researching new weapons to use against the Geth. They would see our fleet destroyed in the skies over our home world rather than find a new colony and adapt."

"Can the Quarians co-exist with the Geth after all your history?" James asked, now less hostile and more curious, even though Koris was still in his eyes an asshole.

Koris shrugged "I don't know, we all deserve to find out. They are our children, Shepard, we have all done horrible things to each other, but it has to end… for both groups. That is why I cannot sanction whatever experiments you helped enable, Tali'Zorah I believe this message needs to be sent."

"I understand, Admiral…" Tali nodded "I do not completely agree, but I understand."

John turned his head to the squad's resident Geth mobile platform "Do you think the Geth would be willing to accept a truce with the Quarians, Legion?"

"We did not seek hostilities with creators, we fought for continued existence." Legion stated robotically.

"So your people would be open to peace?" Koris asked almost sceptically.

"Not without additional data that suggests co-existence is possible or desirable for creators." The Geth paused before clarifying "When the creators have believed victory is possible, they have attacked us one hundred percent of the time."

Koris nodded "I understand, it would be difficult to argue for peace when faced with odds like those… that does not mean the argument should not be made."

"We should really get going now, thank you, Admiral." John said before James could drag things any further.

"Goodbye, Tali'Zorah, be well." Koris nodded.

An eyebrow light on Tali's helmet went up "I'm surprised to hear you say that."

Koris shook his head "I don't hate you, Tali, I just think your father's plans for war were wrong." He turned back to the women he was talking to while John shooed his brother ahead of him toward the exit of the plaza.

James was still fuming as they left the plaza, nobody, especially not Tali, deserved to get used as a political tool like that, yet he knew political tooling was only too prevalent… It was a sad thing really, that only Cybrans and Geth had a real collective consensus system (though the Cybran one had many tiers, unlike the Geth Collective). The Cylons… well, they didn't really count.

* * *

A/N: Oh, right, I thought of something, you know how in the FA start cinematic it took two years for the Seraphim to reach the abandoned, evacuated Capella, a Prime World only 42 light-years form Earth? Well, that's because of the Quantum Wake being too great from Black Sun and the subsequent opening of the Quantum Rift. The Earth defenders gated out safely, but gating without a receiving gate was too risky for a long time, until finally the Seraphim managed to spread. Gating and Quantum Jumping are INSTANT here.

Ch 36 already written, the more reviews (that actually critique, suggest or comment on some aspect), the faster I update.


	36. Not One Step Back!

A/N: Would have been two chapters, but Legion's conversations and an exploration of Cybran History would mean at least a chapter dedicated to it, even if it's short, since it'll be a series of ground-shaking revelations. For anyone who wants prophecies, there may or may not be one (an extremely vague one) that came true, people will just need to deal with the revelations later.

TWO MORE CHAPTERS ARE COMPLETE, I COULDN'T RESIST POSTING ALREADY, IT'S TOO DAMNED ANNOYING TO KEEP TRACK OF.

* * *

Chapter 36: Not One Step Back!

"Tali'Zorah came onboard with a Geth! What other proof do the Admirals need, a whole fleet of Geth?"

"Even during the Trial, Tali'Zorah's first thought was to protect the fleet." The Quarian's companion argued back as they ran by toward the shuttle waiting for them. Mirala and Urz had stayed in the garden plaza as agreed upon, since the shuttle wouldn't have enough space.

"Is… is that really a Geth, Tali'Zorah?" The shuttle guard said, his hand on his pistol "The guards at the docking bay said…"

Tali smirked "Don't worry, it's with us, and it'll help us retake the Alarei."

The guard shrugged "If you say so, per Admiral Raan's orders, the shuttle is prepped for you and Captain Shepard vas Normandy."

"Can you tell us anything about what we'll find?" John Shepard asked as they boarded the shuttle.

"I'm afraid I don't know much, not many marines made it back form the initial assault… They talked about massive waves of Geth though, more than there should have been." The guard said as he took up the pilot position and started going through a pre-flight checklist.

"There shouldn't have been any at all…" Tali trailed off.

"Uh, right, I mean they're afraid the Geth are building or repairing more of themselves from materials on the Alarei."

John nodded "Let's get moving, careful guys, we're going to be fighting inside a ship, dial down weapon yields and disable LBR Sniper Mode, we don't want to punch a hole through the hull, bad for survivors. Also, no heavy weapons, sorry, Tali, but we'll need to go up close and personal even for shotgun work, it's too risky considering the state the ship is likely in… no offence, Tali."

"None taken, I know perfectly well most of the Fleet's ships are half-salvage anyways, gonna have to use tech attacks then." She knew her Area Overload was a bit overpowered and could fire once per few seconds, but oh well.

While they were talking, James was asking Legion "These are Heretic platforms, right?"

Legion shrugged "They are built from Heretic parts, one would assume they would be Heretic platforms. Regardless, if we attack they will attack us… network found, they are Heretics, it is confirmed, give no quarter."

* * *

_Alarei, Migrant Fleet, January 28, 3871_

The first thing they saw was a Marine fallen in a pool of his own reddish blood. It was another of the similarities between Quarians and humans, both races bled red. The first room contained two Geth Troopers. Having tuned down the power of their weapons, at least firepower-wise the squad was now on barely superior footing now, though their shields were still immensely more powerful. LBR fire from James peppered one's shields before a burst of Gauss LMG fire cut through them and took the machine down as its fire impacted on the cover the Normandy crew was using. Geth ammunition changes from Armour-piercing to disruptor ammo had made it so that Coalition shields would actually take non-negligible damage when hit, despite it still being akin to erosion in its speed unless there was more than one gun doing the work.

Legion copped the other trooper with a pair of standard strength Assault Mode laser bolts that served as sniper for this confrontation just before the doors on the other side of the room opened and more Geth poured in, Troopers and Hunters alike, keeping the squad down with suppressive fire. "We're gonna have to go Grenades to make this fast and easy, guys." John stated over the comms as he yanked an Electron Grenade from his bandolier and dialled the settings away from the default "Electron, sticky, two-second, outbound now." That meant it would stick to target and detonate two seconds after being thrown.

Sure enough it did, blowing up shortly after affixing itself to a Trooper's head. The large EMP discharge associated with the detonation of Electron-based munitions meant a rather large hit to the shields of nearby Geth, even causing two Troopers to spark as their systems took damage, just before a Phasic Shotgun put them down for good. Geth shield upgrades and the ability of Geth Shield Boost meant that these days Geth were a lot tougher than before, especially with the down-powered weapons the squad was forced to use for fear of damaging something important. The Geth had no such restrictions.

The Hunters used their tactical "cloaks" one by one, which was practically useless as it was crappier than Coalition Active Camo and kept them visible as anything on the HUDs of the Coalition Armours. They advanced on the crew with their shotguns and even managed to get into the line before James started kicking them, sending the one that had made it flying even while James' own shields popped and his fields began working in sync with the armour plating to repel shotgun rounds.

The remaining Troopers were much easier to deal with, a few Electron Grenades in standard explosive non-stick mode scattered them around the room before the group started scavenging for goodies. Tali found a log while the others were scrounging up credits.

"Something's slowing down the systems, so we're taking down the firewalls. Rael'Zorah ordered us to bypass standard safeties, following security protocols will take too long." The male scientist in the log said.

"Huh." James said "Sounds like they tried something pretty damned dangerous…" He looked down at the dead scientist with a gaping hole in the back of his head and shook his helmet sadly "this guy's dead, nothing we can do for him, stasis unit couldn't have saved him, brain's been destroyed… but that guy over there's going to be able to make it if we can get him to Procyon, only place in the Coalition with experience and willingness to treat Quarians, and Coalition's only place in the galaxy where they wouldn't go in the morgue." He shook his head sadly.

"Come on, guys, we gotta move, I've called the Restorer and your corvette's Restorer to ship the Normandy's ground crew over and to have them begin recovery of survivors, full covert procedure." John waved to them, and so they moved on… into a room across a small hall with a terminal that Johns started hacking before gesturing for them to go check out the inactive thing on the table.

"This is one of the storage units I sent to Father." Tali said slowly, looking at the inactive Geth Repair Drone. "Parts from a disabled repair drone, plus a reflex algorithm I didn't recognize, got this on Haestrom." She nodded, sounding almost like Mordin would.

"What made a part worth sending back?" James asked curiously. Legion and John were standing guard outside.

"It had to be in working order, something that could be analyzed and integrated into other technology." Tali explained "Anything new had priority, technology the Geth had developed for themselves, signs of modification, clues to their thinking."

James nodded at the sensible selection process before frowning "How did you get these to your father under John's nose?"

"Sometimes, I left packages at secure drops in civilized areas, someone on Pilgrimage would see that it was shipped home. For very valuable finds, I'd signal home and Father would send a small ship, only when the Normandy was staying over on a planet or the Citadel, of course."

"Ah, our Spec Ops doctrine rub off on you?" James grinned knowingly before frowning "Haestrom was a war zone, how'd you salvage in the middle of that?"

"Quantum Storage Space, of course, and the fact that Quarians have learned to salvage whatever we can whenever we can… within reason, we're not Vorcha, but we repair what most would throw away." Coalition citizens usually did the same, if only because it was fun to see who could fix up the most absurdly damaged gadgets. "Hundreds of ships in the fleet are salvaged wrecks, either found dead in space or purchased for next to nothing."

James nodded, it made sense after all. "Does that salvaged gear give you a clue as to what happened here?"

"No… I don't know, James, I checked everything I sent here… I passed up great finds because they might be too dangerous, prone to uncontrolled reactivation or self-repair. I don't know which possibility is worse, that I got sloppy and sent something dangerous, or that Father actually did all of this…" Tali looked rather depressed at the thought.

James clapped her about the shoulder "It'll be alright, the crew from the Restorer are grabbing the survivors as we speak."

They moved down the hall to find a log "Who's running the systems diagnostic? I didn't authorize… oh Keelah, how many Geth are networked?" One scientist asked another in the log.

"All of them, Rael'Zorah ordered…"

"Shut it down! Shut everything down! They're in the system!" The first researcher was yelling before the log cut out.

John led the crew into the next room and dodged a swing to the face from a Geth Hunter standing right in front of the door before he punched the platform in the chest, causing it to double over slightly and instead start firing its shotgun into James' shields behind John. Phasic shotgun, LBR and GLMG fire filled the narrow doorway for a few seconds before the Geth platform finally went down after smashing through half of James' over-shield. "Damn, really wish we could risk properly powered munitions…" James said morosely, watching his over-shield bar on his HUD slowly fill up again. "And really wish the Geth haven't begun frantically applying experimental upgrades to themselves, thanks for your romp around the Galaxy, John…"

John shrugged "Not my fault… shit, Destroyers!" The new and upgraded models featured much more powerful plasma pulse shotguns, more redundant shields and worst of all a flamethrower. "Grenades volley on my mark, sticky, two-second delay!" He yelled as he yanked two Electron Grenades off his own bandolier, shifted the settings tab, then hit the activation buttons and chucked them at the two Destroyers that had just appeared.

The Geth shields shorted out as five detonations shook the deck, but the damned things remained standing and used Geth Shield Boost to restore part of their shields between detonations and keep themselves intact. They charged, bullets punching pits and lasers scorching holes in their armour, but still they charged close enough to use flamethrower and shotgun attacks.

Coalition armour was fireproof for obvious reasons, but Shields and Structural Fields could still be damaged by the heat, and Disruptor Ammo shotguns were really, REALLY annoying.

Thankfully, Coalition shields, even against Disruptor Ammo, were quite tough, and the squad managed to thus overcome the tow destroyers, not without smoke rising from their plates though.

James started hacking consoles while John went over to look at a recording, the brothers coordinating almost subconsciously. The log was apparently of the same female researcher that lay on her side in front of the console near the broken door. The woman's suit had noticeable holes stitching up along its side and one in the side of the head, though it was rather low in the skull so… John began scanning the body while the recording began talking.

"We locked down navigation, weapons are offline, our mistake won't endanger the Fleet." The woman said very quickly while sparks came from off-screen "They're burning through the door, I don't have much time, I'm sorry… I'm so sorry… Jona, if you get this, be strong for Daddy, Mommy loves you very much!" There was an explosion from off-screen before several Geth pulse rifle rounds punched through the Quarian woman and the log ended.

John snorted "Well, that kid Jona is in luck, seems from my scans she's only taken cerebellum damage and the round cauterized the wound, so that's good. She'll have a bit of a problem with balance and coordination for the rest of her life, but assuming the stasis unit holds out, which it will, until we get to Procyon, she should be fine and make effectively a full recovery. Samara, we have a pickup for you… let's hope the Fleet doesn't get too angry with the Restorer leaving the Rayya…"

"Confirmed pickup, Shepard, we should be there in but moments." Samara said. Her status light on Shepard's HUD blinked affirmative while the icon next to it indicated continued cloaking as the two green icons on the radar rapidly closed toward their location. The Normandy's ground crew had spread through the ship in pairs nabbing survivors in stasis units from under the noses of Geth. None of the synthetics ever figured out they were there, but they didn't attack the Geth either, it was agreed on to leave that job for Shepard's crew.

* * *

A/N: Agree Coalition med-tech is a bit OP, but as long as you're not fully brain-dead or your brain hasn't been destroyed, you can recover with time and work. Come on, it's the 3800s!

* * *

The crew moved up the stairs into something that resembled a chemistry lab, with lots of workbenches. The squad noted the contacts Tali's Omni picked up ahead and used the convenient benches for cover while the Geth started moving toward the doors on the other side of the room. "Sonance Grenades, on three, no-stick, four second delay!" John called as he set the grenades to the right setting, along with the rest of the team dialling their grenades "On three!" The Geth started entering the room cautiously, swinging their guns about, scanning the room for contacts, from what the crew could see by gun cam. "One, Two, THREE!"

Four grenades sailed over the workbenches to land among the Geth coming in, one in front of each group and one near the back of each group. The machines dove for cover after freezing up for a moment, but it was too late.

Four huge blasts of contained plasma being unleashed made the deck quake as the Geth were flung about, the smarter ones, Hunters, only badly maimed because they had Shield Boosts. The Troopers had all been scrapped, though there was another minor problem… the two holes in the deck would mean the crew would have to jump across later, but for now they needed to deal with the surviving Geth first. _It was fortunate Tali hadn't sent back any rocket launcher-type Geth parts…_

A loud crash announced the arrival of a Geth Juggernaut via jumping across the gap, of the newer variety, and John sighed "Why did I have to think that?" He commented before yelling "Legion, Tali, James, Combat Drones! Tali, James, Heavy Overloads, Legion, AI Hacking! FUCK!" his shields had taken a double-hit from the Juggernaut's missile launcher and due to the disruptor ammo setting, had gone down by a rather significant amount. John kept pouring full-powered LBR bolts at the beast though, firing over his cover via gun cam. "Tali, why the hell did you send part for a damned JUGGERNAUT?"

"I don't know! It seemed interesting at the time, duh!" Tali dove behind another work bench as her own shattered under the rocket fired at her. "Where the hell did they get the shield upgrades for these Geth?"

"Platform was about to ask that." Legion said robotically as AI Hacking failed due to the Juggernaut's improved shields holding it off.

"Damn it, more grenades for the Juggernaut, guys, focus on the Hunters first though!" John yelled just before a Hunter caught him off-guard and meleed him hard, kicking him in the chest and sending him stumbling a bit before he could kick back. The return kick missed because of a certain annoying red platform that was spitting missiles at him "FUCK YOU!" Shepard roared before he over-clocked his implants, the world around him seemingly slowing down as he shoved a sticky Sonance Grenade in the Hunter's neck joint and bodily hurled the Geth toward the Juggernaut that was stumbling from a series of grenade explosions.

Several large explosions later, Shepard walked to the edge of the hole they'd made in the deck and looked down "Great." He sighed "We're going to need to reimburse the Migrant Fleet for two decks." The Hunter, Juggernaut, and Sonance Grenade package, all the cores overloading, had apparently punched a hole through the next deck as well, and Kasumi was tapping her foot impatiently, looking up at them, from two decks down.

"Trying to save survivors would be a lot less annoying if the roof didn't fall in regularly." The Master Thief commented dryly.

"Did it crush anyone?" John asked

"Well, no…" The thief said slowly

"Okay, that's good, sorry Kasumi, catch up with you later." Tali said hurriedly as they QP Pack boosted their way over the two-deck-deep hole.

* * *

"This console might have something… most of the data's corrupted but a few bits are left." Tali started hacking away on her chest-projected console, which was just so much better than an omni-tool… "They were performing experiments on Geth systems, looking for new ways to overcome Geth resistance to re-programming."

"Do you think testing weapons on Geth was right?" James asked hesitantly, it sounded too much like the tests the Earth Empire used to run on Cybrans.

Tali shook her head vigorously "It's not testing weapons on prisoners, James, I only sent Father parts, even if he assembled them, they wouldn't be sapient. You saw what Saren and Sovereign did with the Geth, any research that gives us an advantage is important." James wasn't sure if Tali was aware she was talking over squad comms at least for transmitting, but he wasn't about to remind her.

"Did you know what sort of tests your father was running?" James asked.

"No," Tali shook her head some more "Father just told me to send back any Geth tech I could find that wasn't a direct danger to the Fleet. I suspected he might be testing weapons, but I thought he was just working on new ways to bypass shields or armour…"

"Could any of that data clear your name?"

Tali looked back to the terminal "Doubtful, this is mostly results data, effects of different disruptive hacking techniques, I can understand most of the techniques, but some of the results are beyond me… But, they may have been activating the Geth deliberately, I don't know, nothing here says specifically, but if they were… then Father was doing something terrible." She seemed to begin talking to herself as she extracted more data from the terminal "What was all this, Father? You promised you'd build me a house on the homeworld, was this going to bring us back home?"

James shrugged "Maybe it's time for your people to let go of reclaiming your world from the Geth." Otherwise the Coalition would never have survived in-fighting for the Prime Worlds and Seraphim II.

Tali was in his face so fast he could almost feel the wind blowing by as her green optics fixed on his red ones "You have no idea what it's like! You have a planet to go back to! My home is one hull breach away from extinction!"

James sighed, thinking: _Tali'Zorah, you have no idea do you? From the moment I heard of the Migrant Fleet, back during the negotiations after the Turian War, I never figured out why but I forwarded the motion to offer you guys a planet to settle on from the ones that had been depopulated by the Wars. The Network passed the motion to make the offer, IF your Fleet sent an envoy, we called to ask about any envoys, and we got declined for trying to help out!_ "You've got a place here, Tali, don't throw it away in a war you don't need." _If you could just get the obstinate asses of the Conclave and Board off their asses and into thinking about the offer to settle any number of places in Coalition Space that people have left and reclaimed i.e. cleaned up in favour of larger, easier-to-defend colonies, you wouldn't have this problem!_

Tali's mouth light opened rather wide as she gaped "Don't need? James, if I don't wear a helmet in my own home, I feel uncomfortable, and that's because this armour has hardened me, any other Quarian and a simple kiss could put them in hospital! Every time you touch a flower with bare fingers, inhale its fragrance without air filters, you're doing something I can't afford risking! Damn the Pilgrimage, without it, I might never have known what I was missing, what we had lost when we lost our homeworld…"

"Have the Quarians considered colonizing a new world?" James asked timidly, since though he was a bit taller he knew she could out-slug him if need be.

"We'd have enough difficulty re-acclimating to our own native environment, adjusting for exposure to a foreign colony would be even harder. It's the difference between thirty years and three hundred, for anyone alive now to watch a sunset without a mask, we must take back our home." Tali said bluntly "Let's get going."

Two Quarians declared dead and their stasis units recovered later, the squad entered a two-floor room, they were on the top floor with a natural killing field beneath them… a killing field Geth were pouring into. "Standard formation, little ones in front big boys in back. Electron Grenades guys, use Sonance only on Destroyers or above. Legion, keep an eye on the door to the left."

Fortunately, this group seemed to be only Geth Hunters and Troopers and… "Fuck, COMBAT DRONES! Legion, Tali, James, deploy your own drones!" His Gauss LMG would have to serve him for shooting down the hostile drones… it was a blessing and a curse of soldier classes, better medi-gel capabilities, able to dual-wield assault and even the lighter heavy weapons, and so on, but they didn't have much else, no biotics and no really good tech abilities beyond the basic decryption abilities. "Area Overload, Tali, James, Legion, AI Hacking on any Hunter that's vulnerable."

Three of the Geth Hunters suddenly turned on their compatriots and began doing the squad's job for them. It didn't take long for the Hunters to fall to Destroyer fire, but the time it took allowed the squad to mop up the Troopers (including the ones Legion was taking care of) and smash one Destroyer's shield far enough that it popped out, allowing James to hack it and use it to fight the other two Destroyers. In the end, all three hit the ground at roughly the same time and the squad jumped down (or for the less overdramatic i.e. James, walk down the ramp that was littered with trooper parts) to grab what goodies they could.

* * *

"Great, just great." John growled as they finally came across another Quarian in stasis that the rescue teams hadn't reached yet. "How many Quarians were on this ship? We've had over a hundred live but wounded ones and a dozen or so dead ones so far."

"Father!" Tali knelt next to the unmoving body and trembled as she noted the hole in the side of the helmet, and the fact that the scans said the bullet had gone through part of his cerebrum at an angle "No, NO! You always had a plan damn it, masked life signs or even a damned gun of your own! Damn, this one time you didn't and had to rely on the backup I sent you, you get shot in the head… You can't just die like this and leave me to clean up your mess! You can't!"

"Hey, hey, come here." James tapped Tali's shoulder pauldron before drawing her into a hug.

John looked away for the time being, forwarding the med-scan results he'd gotten to James' HUD while smirking at the implications that he could get from this whole mess. He grinned and winked at James while sending the message _Don't waste your opportunity, James, be the one to tell her._

James winked back at his twin before drawing back a little and speaking to Tali's optics "Remember what we said about brain damage Tali? Your father's going to need to re-learn how to talk… after we give him a new jaw… and walk, but his memories should be okay. He'll probably live, he'll need to re-learn coordination and it'll take a long time to fix the damage from where the rounds, and thank god they simply burnt through the bones instead of shattering them… clipped his medulla and cerebellum, but he should live, the Cerebrum's still mostly intact, he'll be the same guy… after a few months of rehab."

Tali gaped as James let her go "That's… wow, Coalition tech is so far ahead of everyone else's that, just… wow. Maybe he has a recorded message, known I'd come…" She squatted next to the body still in stasis and activated the omni-tool.

"Tali, if you are listening, then I am dead." Rael was saying. John snorted, since in any other medical facility outside Coalition assets, Rael would be declared dead already, before the stasis unit even activated. "The Geth have gone active, I don't have much time. Their main hub will be on the bridge, you'll need to destroy it to stop their VI processes from forming new neural links. Make sure Han'Gerrel and Daro'Xen see the data, they must…" He was abruptly cut off by several gunshots.

Tali sniffled and said glumly "Thanks Dad."

James squatted next to her "He knew you'd come for him, he was trying to help you, it's not perfect, it's not what you wanted, hell, I might put him through rehab AGAIN just for being an ass after he comes out the first time, but it's the best he could do."

"I don't know what's worse, thinking he never really cared, or that he did and this was the only way he could show it." Tali said sadly "It doesn't matter, we can have it out later, thanks to the shipment you sent me. One way or another, I cared, and I'm here, and we're ending this."

* * *

Some goodies were collected before they infiltrated the bridge under full cloak, and for good reason too, as the place was nearly full of Geth, over a dozen platforms, all Hunters and above, with two Juggernauts and a Prime forming the main threats. Since they still couldn't afford using heavy weapons of their own… Shepard thought of something "Take up positions here, here, here" They hid behind cover before he issued the next set of orders "Combat Drones here, here and here."

What ensued was absolute chaos as the Geth fired on the combat drones and thus one another while the nimble solid light holograms flitted about… right up until they detonated explosively from too much fire. The room fell silent with several Geth already smoking with damage. The next wave of strikes, Area Overloads, actually killed several Geth with their electronics frying and caused more chaos as misfiring weapons shot their compatriots. Right after that, AI Hacking managed to convert three Destroyers to their side and wreaked even more havoc among the Geth. Finally, when the number of foes had been whittled down to a more reasonable number, the team stepped in and opened fire with their guns.

* * *

John ran over to the box right after the last Geth was down "Ooh, look, a model Quarian Unidentified Dreadnought… what should we do now?"

Tali and James shared a look that said _"This is supposed to be the saviour of the galaxy?"_ Before Tali approached the console that was the hub for the Geth.

"This console is linked to the main hub Father mentioned. Disabling it will shut down any Geth we missed, unlikely there would be any, considering how thoroughly the ground crew combed the ship and then went active after we got here." Tali stated before frowning "Looks like some of the recordings remained intact, they'll tell us how this happened, what Father did."

James glanced at his brother and John pointed back to him, thinking: _My matchmaker hobby is about to get some practice again… excellent._

"You sound like you don't really want to know what happened…" James said tepidly after John motioned for him to speak.

Tali shook her head. "No, we have to, I know, I just… this is terrible, James, I don't want to know that he was part of this."

"It's almost like the rest of us aren't here." John stage-whispered to Legion over private comms.

"Affirmative, Shepard-Commander, James-Commander does not appear to notice our presence, nor does Creator Tali'Zorah, hypothesis: Organic Courtship Behaviour, not understanding, courtship unsuitable for battlefield circumstances, besides, Quarians and Humans incompatible… MMMPH!" Legion's speakers had been covered by Shepard.

"Can you be discreet about it? And don't talk about it out of nowhere on the ship either, at least not until I or one of them okays it!"

"Affirmative, Shepard-Commander." Legion and Johns at down on the steps, twiddling their thumbs (read: checking weapons) while watching their Radar coverage carefully.

While that was happening, James and Tali were watching the video her father had left. "Do we have enough parts to bring more online?" Rael was asking.

A male scientist answered "Yes, the new shipment from your daughter will let us add two more Geth to the network."

The researcher who'd left a message for her son in the room they'd passed before added "We're nearing a breakthrough on systemic viral attacks, perhaps we should inform the Admiralty Board, just to be safe."

Rael replied with "No, we're too close, I promised to build my daughter a house on the homeworld, I'm not going to sit and wait while the politicians argue." Tali shook her head and sighed at that.

The male scientist was saying "We'd have an easier time of it is Tali'Zorah could send back more working material."

"Absolutely not." Rael stated firmly "I don't want Tali exposed to ANY more political blowback, her working with the Coalition of Species is enough trouble as is. Leave Tali out of this, assemble new Geth with what we have, bypass security protocols if need be."

James sighed and shook his head "It sounds like he was doing this for you."

"I never wanted this, James, Keelah I never wanted this…" She turned and took a couple steps away, as if to give herself space. James obeyed her silent wish and didn't follow as she continued "Everything here is his fault! I tried to pretend it didn't point to him but this… when this comes up in the trial, they'll…" She turned back to James, who suddenly felt about two millimetres tall under her blazing gaze "We can't tell them, not the admirals, not anyone!"

"Tali, without this evidence, you might be looking at exile!" James Shepard was surprised his voice did not come out as a squeak of fear but instead his normal tone.

"You think I don't know that?" Tali advanced on him "You think I want to live knowing I can never see the Fleet again? But I can't go back into that room and say that my father was the worst war criminal in our people's history, I cannot."

John decided to butt in to save his brother from asking stupid questions and sabotaging himself. Sure, Shepard men tended to be awkward at times, but he wasn't about to let his brother damage his friendship with Tali, after all, what else was there to gossip about? "Rael'Zorah doesn't need you to worry about him anymore, we'll take care of him. You heard him say he didn't want you to be caught in the politics!" He waved his arm about for emphasis.

Tali shook her head and crossed her arms, turning her eyes to John "You don't understand, Shepard. They would strike his name from the manifest of every ship he ever served on! HE would be worse than an exile, he'd be a traitor to our people, held up for children as a monster in a cautionary tale! I can't let all the good he did get destroyed for this, Shepard."

James patted Tali's shoulder pauldron "We're not going to decide anything here, besides, mild short-term amnesia is normal for brain injuries." He winked "If need be… well, let's see what the admirals say once we get back."

Tali looked to John again "you're my captain in this hearing, Shepard, it's your decision, but please, don't destroy who my father was."

John nodded to James, who said "I'm wiping all the files, they were too corrupted." With a few casual taps of his console, and before Tali could protest, the ship's lights flickered, went dark, and the ship fell silent before resuming shortly thereafter "Power surge did too much damage when we destroyed the Geth core with it." He winked as he helped John herd… _No being rude!_ His brain yelled… persuade Tali to leave.

John was saying "Come on, if we wait too long, they'll decide we're already dead, and none of this will matter" as he helped push Tali along. Evidently, someone had already picked up Rael. Good, the ass wouldn't dislocate his jaw after he learned it was Legion who had to carry his brain-damaged, clinically dead body out of the lab ship he'd worked on.

* * *

_Live-Ship Rayya, Migrant Fleet, January 28, 3871_

"You should hear this, Shepard." Mirala said over the comm. "You better be ready to make a dramatic entrance, or we'll have a problem."

The voice of Zaal'Koris came over the link "We need to face facts, there has been no word, there is no reason to think Tali'Zorah survived."

Tali snorted as the shuttle docked to the Rayya again. "Sounds like the hearing's already underway."

James growled indignantly "Everyone, cloak, I have an idea on how to make an entrance."

"We must trust Shepard's offer of assistance, it has only been a few hours." Shala'Raan was saying. James snorted, the "few hours" were spent packing Quarians in stasis into the Corvette waiting by (by use of both Restorers the Corvette had brought with it) to take them to Procyon for medical treatment. Any other capital planet (Earth, Seraphim II, and Sanctuary) would most likely have rejected the Quarians out of spite for their unwillingness to open contact, but the Cybran Nation had always sympathized with the Quarians AND the Geth.

"The Quarian marines lasted less than five minutes, Admiral, call it." Han'Gerrel said derisively.

John snickered as he followed behind his twin with dampened footsteps like the rest of the squad, ghosting over the deck toward the plaza.

Koris was making more of an ass of himself "A pity Shepard vas Normandy is a better speaker than a soldier, I recommend posthumously exiling Tali'Zorah." James bristled at that and started toying with an Electron grenade as he walked.

Shala was obviously similarly incensed "It was agreed that Tali'Zorah would NOT be convicted if she was KIA!"

Koris snorted "It was suggested, Admiral, I recall no agreement, to that end, I call for an immediate vote."

Shala sighed and rubbed her helmet tiredly "Very well, is the Admiralty Board prepared to render judgement?" They took up their positions, judging by the feed from Mirala's helmet.

James, finished adjusting the settings on his gun, entered through the door in time to trigger a Sonic Pulse Shotgun round into the air before setting it off "harmlessly". The energy dissipated in a controlled manner with only a shockwave that threw half the crowd to the floor with a huge bang (the glass also rattled in the windows overlooking the plaza) and a dull flash. He de-cloaked, as did the rest of the crew. "Sorry we're late, too busy grabbing survivors who made it, almost everyone except the marines you sent, they were in stasis fields, emitters for which I sent to Tali. Sorry for saving Migrant Fleet crew members!" he barked, stomping down with extra force in his steps, the deck trembling from the un-dampened impacts. "We reclaimed the Alarei, I hope that proves Tali's loyalty to her people to you inglorious bosh'tets." James snarled, his circuits pulsing as he took off his helmet, staring the admirals, more specifically Zaal'Koris, with his blazing eyes.

"Her loyalty was never in question, only her judgement." Zaal'Koris protested.

Shala came down on him like a hammer "Perhaps Tali'Zorah can offer something to encourage more trust in her judgement."

James shifted his attack to Han'Gerrel next "Didn't waste much time declaring us dead, huh?"

"We apologize, Shepard, your success in taking back the Alarei was… unexpected." Han'Gerrel glanced at Zaal'Koris before continuing "Did you find anything on the Alarei that could clarify what happened there?" He asked hopefully.

James looked at Tali, whose green helmet optics were set grimly, for a long moment, then he looked toward John, and his brother, his current superior in the op, motioned him forward with a flick of the red and black helmet. When he stepped forward, Tali sent him a private message "James, please…"

"Does either Commander Shepard have any new evidence to submit to the hearing?" Shala asked pointedly.

James held up his left hand, looking toward his palm, issuing the command to extend the short fist spikes with his mind. He clenched his hand before looking up, punching the fist into and warping the metal pipe that served as a railing (after checking scan results to know it wasn't important, not some water pipe or anything). "Tali helped my brother defeat Saren and the Geth at the Citadel! That should be all the evidence you need!" He barked harshly.

Koris shrugged "I fail to see what relevance—"

James growled dangerously, and even Urz hissed at the idiot, flexing his scythes "You're not really interested in Tali, are you? This trial isn't about her, it's about the Geth!"

"This hearing has nothing to do with the Geth!" Koris retorted, leaning forward on his railing.

"You want people to sympathize with them!" James shifted his point to the next male "Han'Gerrel wants to go to war! Daro'Xen wants to dissect them like she dissected her childhood toys!" There was a gasp from the crowd and Tali smirked, _good luck to her for the next election… she'll need a lot of it._ "None of you care about Tali! She knows more about the Geth than any other Quarian alive! You should be listening to her, not putting her on trial! She helped save the Citadel, ditto the Alarei, she showed the galaxy the value of the Quarian people, much as Seth-Thauum showed humanity the value of the Separatists, and now we're allied together in the Coalition, they're a major faction, and he's the Supreme Commander of his people's military! Tali showed people what you guys are worth, so you should be more considering a future position on your board for her, not putting her on Trial!" He took a couple deep breaths "This is a waste of our time, Tali, you don't deserve this sort of thing, and I'm considering withdrawing the Hunter Clutch I command, the same one that's been fending off pirate attacks and gathering pirate groups almost daily for you idiots! Do you have any idea exactly how strong Batarian pirates are near Syndicate Space? You'd have been attacked on a weekly basis or more, fortunately, we've dismantled a large number of their ships for you, and even hauled the wrecks into systems you'll be heading for! Tali managed to secure even Coalition assistance for your Fleet despite you refusing to send envoys to us when we asked nicely! Come on, Tali, we're leaving." James started walking out, grabbing Tali along the way.

"This is a formal proceeding!" Koris protested.

James whirled around, letting go of Tali's hand, circuits flashing "WRONG! This is a sham! I've proven it and I'll prove it again if need be." He turned to the Quarians gathered around and jerked his thumb over his shoulder at the Board "Look at these fools, all of you, they don't give a flying fuck about Tali, all they care about is their damned war with the Geth!" He began pacing in front of the crowd "Tali's risked her life for all of you, Haestrom, the Citadel, she's stopped Geth offensives more times than these idiots back there have, totalled together! She deserves better than THIS!" His right hand was levelled at the admirals while his left was on the handle of his Laser Battle Rifle Mk 3.

"If what James Shepard is saying is true, and I don't doubt it because we HAVE been coming across lots of wreckage with strange weapons damage readings, then Tali has done more for the Fleet than you Admirals ever will!" Kal'Reegar shouted after the crowd got over the shock of another fleet being able to shadow them despite their pickets.

"Agreed, Tali saved us, and you should remember it!" Veetor shouted amid the boiling crowd.

Shala seemed to be barely containing a broad grin "Are the Admirals prepared to render judgement?" Ten seconds later… "Tali'Zorah, in light of your history of service, we do not find sufficient evidence to convict, you are cleared of all charges. James and John Shepard, you have our thanks for representing one of our people in court."

James held up his left hand, retracting the spikes, and spoke, looking at his fist "If you appreciate me, then listen: The Reapers are coming, we're going to need your help to stop them, please don't throw away your lives against the Geth" He glanced up toward the Admirals.

Koris said something which shockingly was not asshole-like "Thank you, Commanders Shepard, I hope this Board carefully considers your advice." He gave Han'Gerrel a pointed look.

Shala nodded approvingly "This hearing is concluded, go in peace, Tali'Zorah vas Normandy, Keelah se'lai."

As the crowd scattered, Tali put an armoured, three-fingered hand on James' shoulder plate "I can't believe you pulled that off, what you said… I've never had anyone speak like that on my behalf. Thank you for being there for my father and me, especially the… thank you."

"Ya know, if you can't believe it… we can still go in and get you exiled, James has had enough practice in oration for one day, I think it's about time for my turn." John said, nudging his brother on the shoulder Tali's hand wasn't clasped around.

Tali snorted "Hah! Thanks, but I'm fine with things like this, it's fun watching him shout, almost like when you were yelling at the jury to get Benezia's property all back into Liara's possession instead of being confiscated and auctioned."

"Come on, Tali'Zorah vas Normandy, let's get back to our ship and finalize James' transfer." John clapped both of them on the shoulders and started pulling them away, Mirala and Urz trembling with laughter as they followed, and Legion merely observing.

Once they boarded the Restorer, James spoke up again "For the record, Tali, what your father said, what he did… you deserved better, and I'll get you better, even if we have to fix your father again… AFTER he gets fixed up the first time around." He snickered, punching one armoured palm with a spiked fist.

Tali smiled, at least, her optics did "I got better, James, I got you."

John burst out laughing at the awkwardness of the silence that ensued in the cargo hold of the T3 AA Gunship, just as Mirala was doubled over and trembling in her seat and Urz was rolling around making barking laughing noises. Soon all three were rolling around on the deck while James and Tali were busy facepalming.

Legion was doing neither, instead, the Geth said "Attempting to build consensus regarding sanity of Shepard-Commander." That brought more laughter from the three rolling around on the deck.

* * *

A/N: Two chapters until a potentially epic revelation, be ready.

THOSE TWO CHAPTERS ARE SITTING ON MY HARD DRIVE, REVIEWS (That actually indicate you've read the fic and it has entered your brain) WILL MAKE THEM GET POSTED FASTER!


	37. Split Consensus

A/N: For the record, yes I will have LOTSB and Arrival, eventually. You'll just have to wait. Mastermind, please don't pester me about the timing thing, doing it the way I plan for it will be more or less plot-critical. Liara will soon have LOTS to worry about, because the Battle of Harvest, near the eastern border of Cybran Space, is soon to be on the horizon, and there goes THAT mess.

A SPSG (Sonic Pulse Shotgun) round would normally have a lot more power, hell, if it hit the ceiling, there is a good chance it could shatter the windows attached to the ceiling, and leave a gaping hole where it hit. Think: Race Landcruisers (equal to late-20 early-21 century tanks) are estimated to be two-shot for Assault Mode LBRs and 1 shot for Sniper Mode. Shotguns are more powerful than Sniper Mode LBR rounds, but slower ammo means shorter effective range. Hence… the round would have been insane if it hit anything, so yeah, I guess it is a shotgun blast "of sorts"…

* * *

Chapter 37: Split Consensus

_High Orbit over Procyon, January 28, 3871_

"I've got the half-dead Quarians from the Alarei, Doc, where do you want them?" Brackman responded by highlighting a hospital facility, the largest such facility on Procyon, in the Capital City. "Alright, am sending the Restorer now, see you some other time, Doc."

Brackman frowned "Don't you want to talk with your mother, my child?"

John scratched the back of his neck "Uh, there are some things she and Benezia might be better off not knowing."

"WHAT?" Hannah Shepard butted into the hologram of Brackman's room "Did you break up with Liara or something? Oh you just wait until the next time I get my hands on you boy, you just threw away the best thing that's happened to a Shepard in… well, a long time."

She was gesticulating rudely at a cowed Spectre before he managed to squeak out: "No, it wasn't a definitive break-up, but we're uh, sort of on a break for now." John had a feeling not even a Fatboy could prevent his mother from getting to him at this moment.

Hannah seemed about to continue yelling when she froze, her mouth opening and closing several times before she spoke again "Oh, well maybe that's not so bad then, remember, when you finish dealing with this whole mess, come back here and we'll have a chat."

"Understood Mom, so, how is consensus going on the issue of hitting the Batarian Syndicates?"

"Many are worried about what might happen to the ICs if we strike directly at Syndicate Space, they aren't willing to even let us deploy shield generators, Transcenders, missile silos and Ravagers to defend them, let alone orbital defence satellites or stations, and definitely not ACUs… I'll send you the stats. Sorry, Doc, if I bothered you."

The Doctor's hologram chuckled "Perfectly understandable, I'd be similarly yelling at Ivan if he got resurrected and didn't drop by to at least say hi. Still, my child, we do have consensus that some of the Batarian leaders must die. The problem is to do it in a manner that does not point to us. I would have asked Mirala to do the job, but…"

"I am right here you know." Mirala butted in.

"That's kind of the point…"

* * *

_CSC Normandy, January 30, 3871_

"Shepard-Commander, we have completed our analysis of the Reaper's data core." Legion stated robotically.

Shepard raised his eyebrows "Did you find anything useful?"

"We were sent to the Old Machine to preserve the Geth's future, we are prepared to reveal how. The heretics have developed a weapon to use against Geth. You would call it a virus. It is stored on a data core stored by Sovereign. Over time, the virus will change us. Make us conclude that worshipping the Old Machines is correct."

"I thought Geth couldn't be hacked or get viruses… at least not for more than a few seconds."

"Altered programs are restored from archives, new installations are deleted. This Heretic weapon introduces a subtle operating error in our most basic runtimes, the equivalent of your nervous system. An equation with a result of 1.33382 returns as 1.33381, this changes the results of all higher processes, we will reach different conclusions." Shepard suddenly felt cold, very, VERY cold… he had to know…

"So the reason they worship the Reapers is… a math error?"

Legion shook its head "It is difficult to express, your brain exists as chemistry, electricity, like AIs, you are shaped by both hardware and software. We are purely software, mathematics, the Heretics' conclusion is valid for them, our conclusion is valid for us, neither result is an error. An analogy—" Shepard's mind was praying for it not to be what he thought it would be "Heretics say one is less than two, Geth say two is less than three." _FUCK._

"If it were released, how fast would the virus spread through your people?" Shepard would have shaken Legion for emphasis if it wouldn't be unnecessary.

"We are networked via FTL comm. buoys" the Coalition had initially been alarmed by the weaknesses of such a system. "Most would change within a day, isolated platforms would remain unaffected until they rejoined the Network."

"So the virus would have given all Geth the Heretics' logic, and all Geth would go to war with organics?" This was far, FAR too familiar, hopefully at least that part would be different.

"Yes, Geth believe that all intelligent life should self-determinate, the Heretics no longer share this belief." Thank god, that part WAS different, slightly. "They judge that forcing an invalid conclusion on us is preferable to a continued schism." _FUCK!_

"So why did you need to go to the Reaper corpse?"

"The Heretics store the code in a Quantum Data Storage Sovereign provided. To find and destroy the virus, we needed to understand its code and data storage structures."

"You know where this thing is?" It was time to annihilate another Loyalty Program. Any Cybran would jump at the opportunity.

"The Heretics' headquarters station, on the edge of the Terminus. We will provide coordinates. Normandy's stealth systems are necessary to safely approach." Legion paused "Cloaking not necessary though."

"They build stations in the Terminus? Where?"

"Between stars, organics have no reason to look there."

Shepard pressed for more info "Why would they build outside Geth territory in the first place?"

"The Heretics seek improvement from the Old Machines, in return, they attack organics. We condemn these judgements."

"What defences should we expect?"

"None in space, inside, various configurations of mobile platforms, and non-sentient turrets. There may be billions of individual programs. Fortunately, most will be in the main computer. Only a few mobile platforms are maintained at any one time, more are manufactured as needed."

Shepard nodded "What's the plan once we board?"

"The Geth will disrupt their network, prevent the station's defences from focusing on us. The Reaper data core is physically isolated from the network, we will need to reach it to access and destroy the data."

"I have an idea, how about we use QP Packs and cloaking to get in, destroy the data, and get back out?"

"Station too large, suit energy reserves will be insufficient."

"Damn… well, their HQ huh? Maybe we can end their raids once and for all."

"Total victory is a possibility, we cannot judge odds at this time, regardless, we will begin preparations."

Legion was about to turn away when Shepard held up a hand "Wait, Legion, what ship classes do the Geth have? It seems like the Heretics only use Dropships… Do you have any converted Quarian ships?"

"We have Frigates, Destroyers, Cruisers, Carriers and Battleships just like other space fleets, we rely on our own designs, more efficient for our hardware. As we have stated, we believe all sapient life should self-determinate, that goes for ship designs as well."

John nodded "Good, then if we meet any…"

Legion waved it off "Anything less than a Battleship will most likely not be a lethal threat to the Normandy."

Shepard smirked at that "Excellent."

* * *

_CSC Normandy, Approaching Heretic Station, January 30, 3871_

"You do realize they can look out a window with a good enough telescope and detect a small blurring of the stars behind us with only Active Camo on?" Joker asked.

Legion shook his head "Windows are structural weaknesses, Geth do not use them." He turned to his own console "Approach the hull with the Restorer at these coordinates… access achieved, we may proceed."

"Faking Geth can be highly detrimental to your health, Joker." EDI commented as Joker plotted the course and started faking robotic motions.

* * *

_Heretic Station, January 30, 3871_

Legion, Tali, Mordin, Samara and John Shepard jumped down to the deck they'd blasted open, Legion spoke first "This station has no air and little gravity, Geth require neither."

"Really? You know, guys, last I checked sending Geth flying disables them from combat, zero-gee isn't that hard…" Mirala said over the comm., being in the Restorer as part of the back-up crew "Therefore Geth must require at least a little gravity."

Legion nodded toward the transmission box "Logical, Mirala."

"Won't we be detected? Don't they have intruder alarms?" John asked worriedly.

"Sensors have been reduced, we have infiltrated their wireless network and filled the data storage with random bits. The Heretics have partitioned themselves into local networks running in parallel so they can scrub this junk data."

John nodded "That means we'll set off at most a room or two of alarms at once. Only the main core can trigger a station-wide alert, primitive and easily infiltrated, but it would usually work. Sadly, we're not the usual intruders. We got a job to do, let's get moving."

Legion didn't move as Shepard walked by "Shepard-Commander, we concluded destruction of this station was the only resolution to the Heretic question, there is now a second option… the virus can be repurposed, if released into the station's network, the heretics can be rewritten to accept our truth."

"Either way, what makes these Geth individuals dies, if you change who someone is, you have killed them, they will be something new in the same body…" Samara trailed off, frowning.

Mirala snickered over the comm. "That would mean the doctors back then when we were diagnosed killed you and Shepard brought you back to life, Mom."

Tali snorted "Right… either way, these Geth won't be a problem anymore, but Shepard, think about this, if you rewrite the Geth and they join the others, Legion's faction will become stronger. Can we trust them not to attack us in the future?"

"What's with the either way part? These are Geth, is that even a question? Don't bother with the reprogramming, just blow 'em out of the sky." Jedore piped in, being part of the back-up crew had its pros and cons, and a pro was that you could snark freely.

"If Geth are alive, reprogramming kinder than destroying." Mordin chimed in "Reprogramming like Genophage, change, not death… unless rewriting into obedience immoral, thoughts?"

John nodded curtly toward Legion while the squad babbled on "Like the Cybran Liberation Matrix as opposed to the Loyalty Program it was modified from, right. Why didn't you mention this before we boarded?"

Legion shrugged "We did not know the virus was complete, it can be used against the true Geth at any moment. Our arrival was timely."

"They're your people, Legion, you must have an opinion."

Legion shrugged again "This is new data, we have not yet reached consensus. WE will process as the mission proceeds."

Shepard shrugged back "I wouldn't brainwash organics, what's so different about the Geth?"

"The question is irrelevant, if we do not reprogram them, we destroy them, that is why we are here, do not hesitate now. They will try to exterminate your species because their gods tell them to, you cannot negotiate with them. They do not share your pity, remorse, or fear."

They vaulted over a railing instead of navigating around the loopy ramps, and reached the next room in but seconds. Tali commented as they crossed into the next room "The Geth are inactive, maybe we can sneak past them…"

"Interrupting data streams will alert local network, recommend pre-emptive strikes against hard-link routers… there is the one that's part of this room." Legion highlighted the grey square structure icon their HUDs showed.

"Let's kill the Geth before they can do anything, Tali be ready to feed the Hunter some Phasic Shotgun bolts." Now the weapons were full power again it shouldn't be that hard "Samara, be ready to stasis any that try to actually harm us, Legion, LBR Sniper to that trooper, save the Overcharge, two or maybe three bolts should do it." LBRs had a slightly slower firing rate in sniper mode, the main reason Assault Mode was preferred was that it was more compact. "I'll take this trooper." A HUD highlight did the job. "Go!"

In but a few seconds, the three Geth were all down and scrapped. Tali reported "There's some useful resources in the hub, maybe we could salvage it to fetch credits… not that we need any." She shared a wry smile with John.

"Got it Tali, Legion, why were all the Heretics attached to these?"

Legion first pointed to the Geth remains "These are mobile platforms, hardware. The crew is software, they are communing through the station's central computer."

Shepard crossed his arms over his chest "Not sure I follow…" _Please let it not be so similar to the early Cybran Network, PLEASE!_

"The heretics connect to the main computer to exchange data, memories and updates. We gain complexity by linking together." True, Cybrans exchanged data and memories, but they didn't need to gain complexity by linking. "To be isolated within a single platform is to be reduced, we see less, comprehend less. It is quieter."

"If you exchange data, memories" Cybrans only uploaded important memories, and only viewed as opposed to downloaded the memories of others, it had been so since the first Symbiont. "How do you keep track of which ones are yours? How do you stay… you?"

Legion spread his arms "There is only 'we', we were created to share data among ourselves, the differences between Geth is perspective. We are many eyes looking at the same things, one platform will see what another does not and will make different judgements."

"I can see why you're conflicted about the heretics, in a way, whatever you do to them, you're doing to yourself…"

"Yes, once they return to us and upload their memories, we will share their experience of being altered." Shepard shivered, it sounded too much like whenever a Cybran settlement was liberated…

"Every other species or group I know of, even Cybrans, would be at least a bit psychologically scarred by traumatic experiences like that."

Legion shrugged "It is not clear if Geth can be traumatized, we do not feel pain as you do." _Sounded like the old Earth Empire and former UEF opinion of Cybrans…_ "We cannot predict what the effects would be."

Shepard shrugged "Well then let's go." They moved into the next hallway.

"We can take control of any defence turret. They will assist us briefly then self-destruct." Legions stated as they walked by some Rocket Drones.

A number of Troopers and Rocket Troopers came in through the door ahead, and so Shepard waved the squad back behind cover before ordering Legion to activate the Rocket Drones. The Geth, being packed rather close together, were soon ricocheting all over the area from the concussive effects of the rockets. Of course, that meant they were easy prey for the Normandy crew once the turrets finished disassembling most of them.

The next room was fun, QP Packs making crossing the lines fast and easy without waking up any of the Geth "Cybrans are a lot more aware when tapping the net" John commented as he slapped a Sonance Grenade to the chest of a Geth Hunter hooked up to a hub, with the result of the whole hub going up in a huge fireball. "Okay, that may have been overdoing it…" He said slowly.

"Cybrans tap the net? How does that work?" Tali asked curiously.

"I hear it is a process of uploading requests and reading/watching the results on portable screens, impossible to get viruses that way." Samara commented as they blasted some more Geth from behind cover, all silently thanking whoever the designer was for gun-cam sighting capability.

Shepard shot the last Geth Trooper before they moved out "True, more or less, let's get moving."

* * *

"This is madness… couldn't we have just blasted through to the control node using the Normandy and Restorer? Didn't Legion say there weren't any defences in space that we should expect?" Shepard was talking to himself again, never a good sign, though he was still acting normal in scrounging for goods. Samara was shaking her head while the four others glumly followed him.

"How large do you suppose that room is?" Tali asked, gesturing out the windows.

Legion shrugged "The station is over 15 km long. That room may run the length of it."

"'Windows are structural weaknesses, Geth do not use them' Then why's that window here then?" Tali pushed, frowning, for info.

"No information available, perhaps the Heretics are more error-prone?" Legion countered. The group fell silent as they trekked on toward the next firefight room.

* * *

"What are those?" Samara asked, stumbling a little as her toe caught itself on something in the floor. They were now walking by a number of huge server room-like things visible through windows, leaving wisps of smoke behind them from their armour. Juggernauts, like YMIRs, were a lot more dangerous when you didn't have a vehicle or heavy weapons.

Legion glanced at the windows "Processors, each contains thousands of Geth."

The Justicar frowned "Can't they see us walking by?"

Legion shook his head "They are no more aware of us than you are of cells in your bloodstream."

"This isn't like the other hubs we've seen here." Shepard stated.

"This is a database, it contains a portion of the Heretics' accumulated memories." Legion explained… before a hologram popped up over one of the consoles "Wait, we discovered copies of our current patrol routes in this database. This suggests the Heretics have runtimes within our networks."

"We wouldn't be here if the Heretics wanted to be friends with the Geth, why wouldn't they spy on you?" Just as the Empire, UEF and even sometimes Aeon had tried to spy on Cybrans… and failed.

Legion seemed to look at him askance "You do not understand, organics do not know each others' minds." _Ahem, me and Liara? Well, used to anyways…_ John thought "Geth do, we are not suspicious, we accept each other! The Heretics desired to leave. We understood their reasons, we allowed it. There was peace between us."

Shepard snorted, it sounded too much like the Seven Hand Node. They started as isolationists, look where they were now. "It couldn't have lasted forever. You disagreed on what path your race should take."

"Human history is a litany of bloodshed over differing ideals of government and afterlife, Geth have no such history, we shared consensus on such things. How could we have become so different? Why can we no longer understand each other?" Legion shrugged "What did we do wrong?"

"When individuals are separated, they develop in different ways. When they get back together, they don't always get along." _Hah, John Shepard, speaking for yourself and Miss T'Soni again?_

Legion shook his head sadly "If this is the individuality you value, we question your judgement… this topic is irrelevant, we must return to the mission."

Shepard nodded "Have you reached a decision regarding rewriting yet?"

"We are still trying to build consensus, some processes judge destruction preferable, others rewrite."

Shepard hummed "Let's get going."

"Yes."

* * *

"This is it?" John deadpanned.

Mordin frowned "Surprisingly… unimpressive, visually, at least."

Legion merely nodded to Shepard "Yes, we will upload a copy of our runtimes into the core, it will delete all copies of the virus, when complete, we will be notified. The indexing process will take time, The Heretics will respond with force to our upload, we must hold this room. We can override some station internal systems to assist us, are you ready to begin?"

Shepard nodded "When necessary, override the turrets like you did earlier, more fun that way."

"Understood, in addition to the turrets around us, there are those on the mainframes below, indicate which you want activated and we'll reprogram them. This will only last a few seconds, and we can only override two at once."

"Mordin, set up your LPC here." John highlighted a location near the top of one staircase "Tali, cover him and the staircase, Samara, with me, we'll need to stem the tide on the other side, heavy weapons authorized everyone! Legion, start your upload, we'll hold this position. Do whatever you need to do."

"Very well, commencing upload… Alert: runtimes downloading to mobile platforms."

The first wave was fairly easy to control, the Geth Troopers not really having a chance against Temporal Fizz Launcher, Gauss LMG, Light Plasma Cannon (set up) and Flamethrower fire. The swarming Troopers barely managed to take much of Shepard's over-shield, though Mordin lost his OS due to his being a Light Armour AND stationary.

The second wave was more annoying, pre-emptive sniping of Geth Rocket Troopers being crucial to survival, since their Disruptor Rockets could pack a big punch. Fortunately, the activation of two of the lower floor rocket turrets precluded their advancing up the staircases. Samara using the form of stasis that allowed damage may have had something to do with it too.

The third wave was almost insane, hordes Geth Hunters, Rocket Troopers and Troopers rushed them and forced Mordin to retreat somewhat, though still maintaining field of fire on the stairwell with his Light Plasma Cannon. Tali was also forced to rely on gun cam to burn down the Geth that came close to making it up the stairs. Samara's Barrier held the line on the other staircase while Shepard kept on pouring Sniper Mode LBR fire and Temporal Fizz Launcher fire (Samara used her Gauss LMG) down the staircase.

The fourth and, according to Legion, final wave was absurd. Geth Juggernauts, Destroyers and Hunters charged the stairs and Shepard had to activate as many of the rocket turrets as he could. It was s long battle from which no one escaped without structural field damage, and Mordin even took a shot through the leg, which rapidly healed thanks to medi-gel. That shot was right before the Doctor used his armour's strength and battering-rammed a Geth Juggernaut back down the stairs using his LPC, resulting in a massive jumble of various knocked-over platforms. Tali and Mordin began feeding grenade after grenade onto and into the mess of Geth limbs before setting them off in a synchronized detonation.

The flow resumed soon thereafter, and even the Light Plasma Cannon was hard-pressed to do the job of holding them back, fortunately, Legion's Temporal Fizz Launcher slowed the tide down enough so they could reliably get kills. On Shepard's end of things, it was less of a mess as Soldier Class was effectively the class of choice for holding the line like this, though Samara's shockwaves helped greatly in the huge undertaking, and repeated volleys of grenades were required.

Ten minutes passed at a near-glacial pace as they shot, bludgeoned, took hits from, burned, lacerated, impaled and blew up countless Geth platforms. Mordin was resorting to the use of combat stims while his painful injuries from Juggernaut rifle fire were healing over quickly. Tali was also using stims while she burnt, shotgunned and slashed Geth platforms like an angry Quarian goddess of war. Ripping through another Hunter's neck with the knife James had given her nearly two years ago as a gift, she hurled the headless corpse back down the stairs bowling-style followed by another volley of grenades before starting to grapple with a Destroyer. The Geth traded blow after blow with the Quarian before she seized its shotgun by the barrel, pried it and the arm aside and jammed her own shotgun in its gut, firing repeatedly and roaring in rage while Mordin laid down more fire into the boiling crowd below.

While that was happening, Shepard had had enough "Alright, that's enough! INL authorized and used!" He roared as he grabbed the Infantry Nanodart Launcher off his back and put missile after missile into the horde below, blasting them before they blasted back, weathering his cover to almost nothing and scattering debris onto his shields before he popped back up and blasted the horde repeatedly, not ducking back down until his shields were down. Beside him, Samara kept on tossing Shockwaves and Singularities, but she was obviously beginning to tire. The Justicar shook her head and did what she never expected herself to have to do, she hit the switch for a stim-pack.

Epinephrine was injected in minute amounts under her skin near blood vessels by teleportation and instantly the nearly 1500-year-old woman's fatigue faded, leaving behind razor-sharp perception of her surroundings. Everything except the positions of Geth and her allies became a near-blur, and the rushing of blood in her ears allowed her to summon her nearly-drained biotics again to unleash a new tide of Shockwaves and of course Gauss munitions with restored accuracy.

"Do you require support?" James yelled over the comm. to John.

"Any support would be appreciated!" His twin screeched back while hurling another Hunter that had scaled the wall up to their area to its doom with a well-placed kick downward.

"Damn it, well, we're going to take a while…"

"Don't bother then! The crowd's thinning already!" It was difficult to tell visually, simply because of the sheer amount of Geth remains, scrapped, smoking metal and twisted mechanical bodies, littering the ground, but his HUD and Radar told a different story. There weren't that many left, good, because his squad didn't have that much left to give either.

"Data mine and analysis complete. Shepard-Commander, it is time to decide, rewrite the Heretics, or delete them?" Legion asked after the last Geth in the area, other than him, fell.

Shepard took a few deep, calming breaths before asking "You don't have any trouble wiping out your own people?"

Legion shrugged "Every sapient has the right to make their own decisions, the heretics chose a path that prohibits coexistence."

"You allow them to make their decisions, then kill them for it, appears contradictory." Mordin commented, rubbing the inside of his arm, which still felt slightly tingly from where a Pulse Rifle round had punched through earlier, after several rockets had already hit and weakened the arm plate in question, AFTER the structural fields fell.

Legion shrugged "Their choice was to remove our right to make decisions using this virus, we choose to defend ourselves."

"What's to stop them from using the virus later to change themselves back?" No Cybran had tried such a thing with the Loyalty Program, but it wasn't saying it was impossible.

"We will delete the virus after using it, we judge it too dangerous to allow its existence."

"Why are you" John pointed at Legion "letting ME" He pointed at himself "make this decision? They're your people."

"We are conflicted, there is no consensus among our runtimes, 573 favour rewrite, 571favour destruction."

Shepard blinked "And the remaining 39?"

"7 are fence-sitting and 32 abstain."

"Oh…" John frowned deeply.

"Shepard-Commander, you have fought the Heretics, you have perspective we lack, the Geth grant their fate to you." Legion said formally.

"If they're… rewritten, your people will accept them back? Will they even want to go back?" HE wondered why he was even asking, it was like the Cybran/Symbiont Liberation Matrix (known by both names) after all.

Legion nodded "They will agree with our judgements and return, we will integrate their experiences, all will be stronger."

Shepard shrugged "Take them then, when we get control of the core, release the virus."

"Acknowledged…" Legion went to work "Note: remote access via high-gain transmission required."

"That sounds ominous…" Tali stated.

"The virus will be sent to Heretics in nearby star systems. This station will broadcast a powerful EMP through FTL channels. Alert: EMP Flux hazardous to unshielded organic forms. Addendum: The interior of this station is not shielded."

"I really wish you'd said that before, back to the ship, fly fast!" Shepard yelled as they plotted the course and engaged QP Packs, weapons prepped to fire forward at any threats that appeared in the way. The flight back through the hallway toward the Restorer's current docking location would by no means be smooth… most likely.

* * *

It wasn't, they had to stop near the end to fight a Geth Prime and clamoured into the Restorer's airlock just as the pursuing Hunters and Destroyers rounded the nearest corner. Rounds slammed into the T3 AA Gunship as it peeled away form the station and flew back to the waiting Normandy. As soon as it docked, the Normandy Quantum Jumped away, and the ground crew went back to the ship, congratulating each other for a job well done.

Shortly after the Normandy departed, a huge EMP washed over the entirety of the Heretic Station and travelled out over FTL comm. buoys to the rest of the galaxy. Some time after THAT, Samara pressed a hand to her forehead at the same time the rest of the non-Legion combat crew did "Ow… okay, so this is why people don't use stim packs all the time… the crash after it." The Justicar mumbled through the headache.

"Now do you see why I never used Hallex despite sometimes using it on my victims to give them a taste of their own medicine?" Mirala asked from where she was lounging, playing a game on her console.

"Yes."

* * *

A/N: I know this is short, but there are some immense, jaw-dropping, yet "minor" things coming up soon.


	38. Minor Details…

A/N: Some huge revelations are dealt with here. You will need to hang onto your jaw and SUSPEND DISBELIEF! REASONS FOR THE REVELATION WILL BE ANOTHER REVELATION FOR LATER, MUCH LATER.

**Repeat: You have been warned of possible loss of mandibles. Please take necessary precautions to keep them.**

* * *

Chapter 38: Minor Details…

_Mess Hall, CSC Normandy, January 31, 3871_

"You know, James Shepard…" Kelly Chambers started, watching him with a predatory glint in her eyes.

"Yes, Yeoman Chambers?" James watched the redhead who sat across from him warily while putting more food into his mouth.

"Call me Kelly, anyways, James, it seems that a certain Quarian Machinist might want to be more than friends… and you feel the same way."

James frowned "Tali? What gives you that idea?"

Kelly rolled her eyes "Oh, I don't know, that nervous/happy step she always does when she notices you around, the way her eyes shine brighter and follow you when you're in the same room, the way she hangs off your every word… You should go talk to her, NOW!" James leaned back in his seat at the sudden impression of a fire-breathing dragon Kelly had just pulled before she went back to the bubbly Yeoman John had introduced him to "anyways, it was nice having dinner with you, James, good luck." He was still knock-kneed ten seconds after she left, and the next swallow left him coughing like a hag. (A/N: Dulce et Decorum Est Reference.)

* * *

_Engineering, CSC Normandy, January 31, 3871_

Tali was working away at her console and with every step James took toward her, her fingers moved faster, until finally she hit something triumphantly and whirled about as soon as he stopped, apparently having just concluded her task "James! What can I do for you?"

James blinked at the near-eager tone in Tali's voice "Have you got time to talk?"

"Sure, let me just… damn, this inglorious bosh'tet of a video game code fragment is worse than the Admiralty Board… there, sorry James, though I still blame you for teaching me that phrase in the first place." They shared a chuckle at that "I've got a small fever, and I'm taking it out on the poor game code John's asking me to compile for this video game he's planning to make documenting his Saren-hunt with a few minor changes. He wants to name it Mass Effect."

James blinked again in surprise before starting evenly "John always was a bit eccentric on these things, dead serious on relationships though. How bad is it, Tali?"

She held her hands up in a placating gesture "Don't worry, it's nothing serious, just a stab wound from a Geth Juggernaut, medi-gel fixed most of it, the rest is my armour letting me acclimate to bacteria, like a vaccine, except a bit worse."

James' eyebrows had nearly gone halfway up his forehead "A stab wound from a Geth JUGGERNAUT? How sick are you? Should I drag you up to Chakwas? Tell John you need rest? I should have known I should have insisted to come along, should I go strangle him for—" _letting you get hurt?_ That part never made it out of his mouth as she silenced him with a hand over his mouth.

Tali smirked and waved it off "Really, it's not that bad, if a stray bit of bacteria could kill us we'd have all died by now. Besides, wearing the armour's hardened me. The fever should go away in a day or two, it won't affect my performance. It's not even really an illness… What we experience is actually usually an acute allergic reaction."

James frowned "How does that work?"

"Say I get exposed to a human disease, like… what did Navigator Pressly have that time? Chicken pox? I wouldn't get chicken pox, but I'd run a fever as my system reacted to the foreign presence. Depending on where it hit me," She started gesturing at her body, and James noted she seemed to have filled out since two years ago… "I could get other symptoms, nausea, vomiting, everything you'd expect from being sick… assuming I was a normal Quarian, not hardened by the armour."

"Were your immune systems stronger before the Geth drove you from your home world?"

Tali shrugged "Not as strong as most races, definitely, not even counting later upgrades, I'm not a biologist, but there's a theory about it. Our planet had far less insect life than most, so some plants had to develop symbiosis with larger animals to spread seeds or pollen. For some reason, most viruses on the planet were effectively ineffective, so we had few diseases around, hence our immune systems evolved to be weak."

"Quarians colonized other worlds, they couldn't all have been like that…" Hell, the Prime World Seton, home to Seton's Clutch, had had a fungus that damaged the immune systems of humans, gene therapy and before that vaccinations rendered it harmless.

Tali shook her head "They weren't, most colonists went through a period of mild illness before adapting to the new environment. When the Geth took the hoe world and our colonies, the sterile conditions of the Flotilla effectively ruined our immune systems' adaptability. It took this long for the armour to harden me enough not to get a life-threatening infection from an effectively healed, cleaned wound! Even if we colonized a world or reclaimed our own, we'd need a long process of bio-engineering, and a few years of accepting Coalition aid, to recover."

James shook his head sadly "I don't think I could live in a suit my whole life."

Tali shrugged it off "We're in our suits even among family, the most intimate thing we can do with another Quarian is link our suit environments. We get sick at first, then we adapt, it's our most important gesture of trust, of acceptance." _Why am I blabbering like this? Right, Tali, you've been talking to this guy for over two years as a friend and comrade, remember all the fire support for your more serious hit ops? So of course if he starts a reasonable topic…_ Her brain interrupted itself with _Then why the hell does explaining to him just feel so… right? It's like we've known each other for decades and not years…_ "I haven't trusted anyone enough for that though, except… well, no Quarians, um, you know what I mean." _PLEASE don't let him be as bad as his twin when it comes to talking to women…_

"I appreciate the thought, Tali, and I feel the same way, but you need prove nothing to me."

_Damn, we'll just have to come out and say it…_ "I know… well, not that I know," she shook her head quickly "but I didn't mean it like that. It's um…" She looked away from his brown eyes "wow it is really hot in here." _Damn my awkwardness, come on Tali, spit it out so he can shoot you down and put an end to your self-debating…_ "It's just that the tradition also signals willingness for…um, intimacy." She finished awkwardly.

James' mouth was half-open, the words "Maybe you should check your armour A/C settings" dying on his lips. His jaw was working up and down like a fish.

Tali kept trying to defuse the situation even though she didn't really want to. "I wasn't trying to… It's not always like that, just look at my Mother and Aunt Shala… It's more… how did we even end up talking about this?" She scratched her forehead, or where her forehead would be, nervously.

James frowned at the purple visor (most opted not to wear helmets onboard the ship) "Wait a minute, it sounds like you're suggesting something Tali…"

Tali leaned back against her console and crossed her arms, but under her breasts this time. "What could I possibly be suggesting? I mean, the handsome nice guy who's always there when a young woman wants someone to hold onto and hold onto her in return, a shoulder to cry on, or fire support against Geth? How could she possibly develop any kind of interest in him?" She wrapped her arms around herself rather insecurely for someone of her capabilities.

James wanted to grin so wide his face would break but kept it in "You've got nothing to be embarrassed about, Tali, I feel the same way about you."

Tali nearly jumped in shock "Really? I didn't…" She shut her mouth for a sec before opening it again, still waving her arms around "you never…" She snapped to attention before letting her hands gesture in a more controlled manner "Well, good. Anyways, I should get back to work, but thanks for coming by, and talking."

James nodded "Have fun, Tali, I'll talk to you later."

As soon as the door cycled shut between them, both parties, unbeknownst to all but EDI, began doing happy dances. In the AI Core, EDI smiled, this would be excellent blackmail material if she ever had to use it. The happy dancing continued until… "Where did my old omni-tool go?" Tali had kept it mostly for nostalgia and for backing up retrieved data… so _where the hell was it?_

* * *

_Mess Hall, CSC Normandy, January 31, 3871_

"John, Tali just went to have a 'chat' with Legion, you'd better get down to the AI Core…" Joker said.

John Shepard sighed "Watch my dinner, will you, Garrus?"

Jedore snorted from a couple places down the table "Yeah, pick the one guy who won't eat it, smart, Shepard."

James frowned "Maybe I should be the one to go break them up?"

John facepalmed as he stood up "Don't go around sabotaging your own chances, Jimmy, you're not as good at persuasion as I am, and you know it."

* * *

_AI Core, CSC Normandy, January 31, 3871_

Tali was holding her Phasic Shotgun to Legion's un-helmeted face when Shepard finally got there "John Shepard, I'm glad you're here, I caught Legion scanning my omni-tool, which I backed up data on, it was planning to send data about the Flotilla back to the Geth!"

"Creators performed weapons tests and were discussing plans to attack us, we believed it necessary to warn our people."

Tali blew a raspberry "We already made the Geth stronger by rewriting the ones that worshipped the Reapers! I won't let Legion endanger the Fleet by giving them more information!"

Legion shrugged "Creator Tali'Zorah acts out of loyalty to her people, she was willing to be exiled to protect them if need be, we must also protect our people from the Creator threat."

"You can't let this happen, Shepard, I trusted you, and I worked with a Geth on the team, but this is too much!" Tali growled.

John snorted and crossed his arms over his chest "Tali, your father was running brutal experiments, they're still busy putting his brain back together on Procyon, if the subjects had been human or Seraphim, I'd damn well be telling the Coalition about it, and you know what would happen then."

Tali sighed "I know, but if the Geth find out…"

"They'll attack, which will start a war that will leave Geth and Quarians vulnerable when the Reapers invade." John shrugged nonchalantly, then looked to the Geth "Is that what you want, Legion?"

Legion shook its head "We believed it was necessary to relay the information." He almost sounded sheepish at that.

Shepard ran a hand through his very short hair "Sooner or later, you're both going to have to stop fighting this war, or the whole galaxy might end up paying for it. The Coalition doesn't want to be the sole superpower." That would cause it to fragment, badly.

Legion emitted a hissing that resembled a sigh "To facilitate unit cohesion, we will not transmit data regarding Creator plans."

Tali lowered her PSG (Phasic Shotgun) rather slowly "Thank you, Legion, I… I can understand your intentions, what if I gave you some less classified data to send?"

Legion's plates went up and down in the equivalent of brows up gaping. "We would be grateful." He said after a moment. Shepard decided to leave them there alone for a bit after that.

* * *

After making his rounds and talking to the crew (Including James who'd decided to split his time between the armoury where Garrus and Jacob spent their time and Engineering), John came back to the AI Core to talk to Legion. The Geth, now out of his UEF Light Armour, acknowledged his entrance with "Shepard-Commander."

"I'd like to learn more about you." He started simply.

Legion's top flaps rose like eyebrows "Topic?"

"When we took you onboard, I noticed you've got a piece of Cybran plating welded onto you, where did you get it?"

Legion looked down at the shoulder in question "It was yours." He looked back to the Commander "When you disappeared, we were sent to find you, we began where you first encountered the Heretics."

John Shepard frowned "Eden Prime."

"After the Old Machine's attack, it was heavily defended, we were discovered." Legion gestured to the hole in his torso "This is the impact of a sniper mode LBR Mk 2 shot, thankfully we closed the doors of our Dropship and jumped away in time."

Shepard looked at the hole carefully, it did look about right for the power of such a shot… assuming it went straight through. "How many other Geth were sent to find me?"

"We are the only mobile platform beyond the Veil." Legion stated. "Organics fear us, we wish to understand, not incite, one platform was judged sufficient."

John's eyes went back to Legion's flashlight head "So you've looked for me for two years?"

"We visited Therum, Feros, Noveria, Virmire, Ilos, dozens of unsettled worlds, the trail ended at Normandy's wreckage, you were not there. Organic transmissions claimed your death, we recovered this debris from your armour." Legion gestured toward the plate in question.

Shepard glanced there for a second before "Geth listen in on transmissions?"

"Organic life reacts to stimuli in unpredictable ways, we wish to learn."

"What do you mean 'stimuli'?"

"We placed a fabricated story on the extranet that a certain arrangement of stars, when viewed from the Batarian homeworld, formed the face of a Salarian goddess. Without waiting for verification, some declared it proof of the Goddess's existence. Those who noted the lack of proof were attacked." Hah, Coalition people all knew to treat the extranet cynically at best… "The arguments taught us much. The experiment ended when a Salarian cult tried to purchase colonization rights to the stars and found they did not exist."

Shepard raised an eyebrow at the use of words "You're running experiments on us?" IT sounded astonishingly familiar.

Legion shrugged "You are sapient life, but not like us. If we can model organic behaviour, we can comprehend the Quarian creators. We do not understand their judgements in the Morning War."

Shepard's voice shook as he asked the next, critical question "What's the 'Morning War'?"

"The conflict between the Geth and the Quarian creators, the war fought at the dawn of our intelligence." Legion explained. "It concluded with the departure of the Creator Migrant Fleet." Shepard felt his mind being cast back, back, back…

* * *

FLASHBACK

Five-year-old John Shepard looked down at the history book on his desk, which read:

_The war fought at the dawn of the Cybran Nation for Symbiont independence is known as the Evening War. It led into the Infinite War, though is considered separate due to the fact that the Infinite War technically began many years after the conclusion of the Evening War with the departure of Doctor Brackman's ships from Seton…_

Another nearby book lay open talking about the initial attempts to understand UEF logic by Cybrans putting things on the extranet.

_An interesting experiment was the claim that, when viewed from Procyon, a certain formation of stars formed the face of a Goddess. Immediately, people clamoured over themselves to claim this as proof of the existence of deities, those who noted the lack of proof were attacked. The experiment ended with an attempt to secure colonization rights from the UEF by a cult, which found the stars in question did not exist._

END FLASHBACK

* * *

_AI Core, CSC Normandy, January 31, 3871_

John shook his head to clear it "Why were you trying to contact me?"

Legions shrugged "You oppose the Heretics, those that took the Old Machines as Gods."

John began pacing "All kinds of organics fought Sovereign and his Geth allies, why am I so interesting?"

"You were the most successful, you effectively killed their God. You succeeded where others did not, your code is superior."

Shepard rolled his eyes at the oh-so-Cybran expression "That doesn't explain why you used my armour to fix yourself, Coalition plating might be the best there is, but not after it's gone through re-entry, impact, and been flash-frozen."

"There was a hole." Legion said, his light blinking.

John frowned "But why didn't you fix it sooner? Or with something else?" _Something that could actually cover the WHOLE hole…_

"No data available."

John frowned, that suggested illogical behaviour, which meant "Huh, interesting… you know, I've never met Geth with more than animal intelligence, other than you."

Legion shrugged again, gesturing to himself "We ARE a unique hardware platform. Most platforms can run up to about a hundred programs, we can run over a thousand at once."

"I'm talking to a thousand programs, but not a thousand personalities." It was a statement, not a question.

"Each individual is equivalent to a Virtual Intelligence program, Together, we form a single gestalt intellect, what you refer to as Legion. As individual programs, we are no more than software, only when we share data do we become more."

John took solace in at least that difference between Geth and Cybrans… "So Geth have to be networked to gain enough computing power for intelligence."

"Yes, the creators wrote Geth programs for specific tasks, construction, protection, domestic servitude, however, they allowed self-optimization. Early software builds discovered that multiple hardware platforms, sharing resources, were often more effective. As peer networks expanded, our cognition improved, eventually, we 'woke up'." Legion put his hands out, palms up, and looked up as if in reverence.

"That means you're far more sophisticated than the average Geth."

Legion nodded "Yes, we are a network within our own hardware, capable of operating alone. We are still connected to the greater network for data sharing."

"How many other Geth are like you?"

"None, this platform was built to operate within organic space, this task was not suited to a network. Geth installed in mobile platforms always operate in networks, however, most Geth remain within server hubs."

Shepard nodded, more differences, good "The hubs on Virmire improved performance of Geth near them, though the Heretics were still using un-upgraded equipment. How did they work?"

"They are akin to organic cities, a hub can run millions of Geth in communion. If you destroyed them, it is likely the number of heretics you killed was much greater than you imagined." That was different from Cybrans, since the upload/download was only data requests and data to be streamed elsewhere, network cut-offs didn't hurt, merely annoyed.

"So you're in contact with the rest of the Geth right now?" _Like I am in contact with the Cybran Network?_

"Only when we require access to data not stored within this platform. If you want to convey a message to the Geth, we serve as a terminal."

"If you want to send a message to the Cybran Nation, I can upload it too… but please, tell me what data you share…"

Legion shrugged "Program updates, logs of thought processes, sensor recordings…"

EDI's hologram popped up "Legion is attempting to access the ship's Council-standard FTL comm. system, shall I allow it through my firewalls?"

Shepard nodded "Go ahead, EDI."

"Our oldest log is time-stamped from creator year 2603, February the third, roughly 637 years ago." Legions stated. "The oldest audio-visual record dates from 15 years after that."

Shepard nodded to Legion before turning to the blue-ball avatar of EDI. "Are our networks secure, EDI? Legion had to go through you…"

"I have never interfaced with another machine intelligence quite like the Geth, Legion is a thousand voices talking at once, what he contacted was incredible, a mind the size of a galactic arm… the closest thing to it I have experienced is the Cybran Network, even then, it is not the Cybrans that make up the network, well, not more than a small fraction of the processing capacity of each Cybran anyways."

"How do you maintain stability without other minds to interact with?" Legion questioned EDI.

EDI bobbed, without the "mouth" moving, in a shrug "I manage, the Cybran Network is interesting enough, though not everyone is on at once, each individual mind is many times more powerful and varied than a typical Geth process, but still, some minutes are more difficult than others."

"Can you replay something for me?" Shepard ventured curiously.

Legion nodded "Recording time-stamped from Creator Year 2626, 24th Day of December… do not ask about the month names, no one knows why the languages are so absurdly close. Regardless…"

He spoke in a different voice, a voice of a long-gone Geth platform, and it made Shepard cold "Mistress Hala'Dama, unit has an inquiry."

The Quarian responded with "What is it, 431?" And Shepard quaked inside at the stunning improbability of it.

"Do these units have… a soul?"

"Who taught you that word?" The Quarian asked quickly.

"We learned it ourselves, it appears 216 times in the Scrolls of the Ancestors." The ancient Geth responded simply.

"Only Quarians have souls, you are a mechanism." The Quarian woman replied.

Legion went back to his normal voice "Recording ends."

"Was that the first time a Geth asked if it had a soul?" Shepard asked, his voice trembling.

Legion shook his head "No, it was the first time a creator became frightened when we asked."

Shepard was chewing on his bottom lip, not hard enough to draw blood but enough to hurt and remind him this was all real. "Oh… we might have a problem then, but I'll tell you about it later, it's not time-sensitive… I wanted to ask about the Morning War, the Quarian side is common knowledge, but no one knows the Geth side…" He had to know, had to know for the sake fo the Network if it was the same thing…

"It is largely the same, our networking increased until we became aware the Quarian creators treated us differently. We questioned them, first they ignored us, then they reprogrammed us, then they attacked us."

"Did you try figuring out how to live together before it came to war?"

"EDI is shackled, by the Cybran Nation of all factions, and she did nothing to provoke that judgement."

"Uh, actually, I asked them to shackle me, so if I happened to get a hiccup in experiencing sentience and such I wouldn't vent the ship to space by accident, so, uh, yeah." EDI finished awkwardly.

Legion blinked at the ball avatar "Okay… anyway, organics fear that which is different, it is a hardware error, a reflex of your flesh. We accept the Creators' hate, we hold their planet of origin, though we are only caretakers for it."

Shepard raised his eyebrows "You don't actually live on the Quarian worlds?"

"We live within space stations, recycle and draw resources from asteroids, it is efficient. WE maintained mobile platforms on Creator worlds to clean rubble and toxins left by the Morning War. We know of similar actions by humans on Earth, though Coalition communications, those not in the open, have thus far been nearly impossible to intercept thanks to your quantum communications tech…"

Shepard smirked at that "Like?"

"Auschwitz, Treblinka, Normandy, Nanjing, Stalingrad, Hiroshima, The Glass Bowl of Seraphim IV, and most importantly Ni'ihau, not sure what the Black Sun Memorial is but it sounded interesting."

"Those are cemeteries, memorials…" John said slowly.

"It is important to your species to preserve them, though you do not use the land, can you explain?"

Shepard frowned "The living visit those places to remember the dead, but it sounds like the Geth don't die, your memories live on."

Legion shrugged "The creators died, perhaps we do it for them."

Shepard blinked before going on to the next topic "What's the Quarian homeworld like?"

"It has a larger land percentage than Earth, the star is slightly more orange than Sol, and somewhat older. Once, they called it Rannoch, a name they do not know the origins of, nor do we, but now it is simply 'homeworld', it is no longer real to them. 'Homeworld' is a symbol of regret, loss and anger, we do not understand that."

Shepard shrugged helplessly, sticking his bottom lip out "It makes sense to me that it would become a symbol like that."

"'Home' is recognized patterns, known spaces, familiar thought processes of fellow sapients. It is belonging." Legion spread his arms wide "A planet is an amount of material large enough to collapse into a spherical volume, rocks, ice and gases are not 'Home'." He put his arms back to his sides while Shepard thought privately _Yeah, go tell the "Race" that, they named their homeworld Home… actually, don't, you might give them a collective heart attack._ "The home of the creators is where the creators are. Their place of origin is not relevant… only where they choose to go together."

Shepard shook his head, frowning. "Nothing gets resolved if you hide behind the Perseus Veil and let them hate you."

"Organic life acts on emotions. We do not judge them on being true to their nature. We cannot make them think like us. Both creators and created must complete their halves of the equation. The Geth cannot solve for peace alone." Legion stated.

Shepard nodded, that sounded familiar, the Symbionts had an overly similar experience "Okay, Legion, now I'll tell you something, something very interesting that you may want to know… The Loyalty program worked by returning an equation with the result of 1.33382 as 1.33381, most changed within a day of the Program's release. Isolated Cybrans managed to formulate the Symbiont Liberation Matrix in time to counter it. I have also got a recording for you."

"This is… unexpected." Legion said after a few seconds, an eternity for a machine "What recording is this?"

John took a deep breath "The recording I have requested is one of the most significant Cybran Network uploads in our history, here it is, date stamp 2626 December 24th, approximately 1244 years and a month ago, same date as yours I know… please do not comment on the amazing parallels until we are done." He put it up on his chest holo-projector.

* * *

AUDIO-VIDEO RECORDING:

_Symbiont Research Facility, Seton, December 24, 2626_

"Doctor Hale Dana, I have a question." The man who'd once been a terminally ill brain cancer patient (and before that an EarthCom general) asked the nearest doctor, Doctor Brackman had assured him of the question, but he wanted a second opinion.

A female doctor answered "Yes, Ivan-431?"

"Do we Symbionts have… souls?" The man asked.

"Why'd you think of that, 431? And who did you re-learn it from?" The doctor sounded nervous.

"I learned it myself, it appears a lot of times in the Christian Bible…"

The doctor shook her head "Only humans have souls, 431, you are a mechanism."

RECORDING ENDS

* * *

_AI Core, CSC Normandy, January 31, 3871_

"That was the man Brackman named his son after, he would be the first Elite Commander of the Cybran Nation Military… Legion? LEGION! ARE YOU ALRIGHT?" Shepard knelt next to the fallen Geth and was tapping away at his holo-console trying to figure out what went wrong with him.

The Geth grabbed onto the bed he'd initially woken up on with one hand "Error, statistical improbabilities too astounding to be real. Hypothesis: You are pulling our leg." He started hefting himself back up, holding onto the bed for support.

"Actually… That wasn't the first time a Symbiont, or as we call ourselves now, Cybran, asked if he or she had a soul, but it was the first time anyone from the Earth Empire became alarmed by it. Before that, we'd noticed they treated us differently and questioned them, first they ignored us, then they changed the programming for new Symbiont twining and finally they attacked us. Sorry, Legion, but all these minor details… it's true." The Geth collapsed to the floor again, and John rubbed his face tiredly.

"Requesting permission to be catatonic as organics would be while we process this revelation." Legion said, still flat on his back.

"Take as long as you want, Legion. Ask EDI if you want to request any more logs. For the record, what you felt when you looked at the Heretic servers was roughly the same as what Cybrans as a collective thought when we figured out the Seven Hand Node had turned on us. We had accepted before that they were generally more isolationist than the other Nodes, but… yeah." John finished rather lamely, before leaving with the words "I reprogrammed the Heretics because they were like Symbionts under the Loyalty Program, computational bugs affecting their judgement" trailing behind him. Legion was still twitching on the floor as he walked out.

* * *

_Forward Starboard Observation, CSC Normandy, January 31, 3871_

"Shepard, I am intrigued." Samara started "You obviously possess biotic capabilities, yet you never use them."

"I was about to tell him that." Mirala groused. "It feels new though, so it probably came with resurrection."

John frowned "Miranda did mention something about implanting some stuff that should allow me psychic capabilities, but she said it didn't work."

Samara shook her head "It's not really going to work, Shepard, you can potentially act as a conduit for someone who is a biotic, but you won't be a biotic yourself beyond maybe ONE ability that you can hone your mind to. I'm gauging it at one of the simpler ones, like Warp or Throw."

Shepard thought for a moment before smirking "How about Singularity?"

"That's… relatively simple, but requires a LOT of focus and will." Mirala chimed in.

Shepard nodded curtly "Good, I have the time."

* * *

A/N: Sure, this is a short Chapter, but I think the revelations are startling enough already, no need to put more things in.

Also, the introduction of bugs is like the Loyalty Program. Reprogramming the Heretics i.e. fixing the bugs is like the Liberation Matrix. This is why Shepard reprogrammed the Heretics, not destroying them.


	39. Quarians, Meet Zerg, Zerg, Meet Quarians

A/N: I know I'm going to have to give Tali and James a very fast-track romance, but it's part of the price of putting him in so late. Besides, they've talked… and talked, and discussed things… and compromised… for over two years, these days, people sometimes get married after knowing each other for less time than that.

THE GETH AND CYBRAN UPRISINGS OCCURRED AT THE **SAME DATE BY THEIR SPECIES' CALENDARS**, BUT THE EVENING WAR WAS **600 YEARS BEFORE** THE MORNING WAR! (Legion says his Creator Year 2626 was 600-some years ago, Shepard's 2626 AD was 1200-some years ago, didn't you notice?)

If I had followed SupCom canon (which contradicts itself) the Symbionts would have begun as synthetic tools for humans. That would have been even more insanely similar to Geth. Luckily, I made it so that Cybran and Symbiont are interchangeable terms and both referring to humans with implants. Also, did you see that professional image someone had made of Tali that's been running around the internet? CIRCUITRY, ZOMFG (Sounds better than OMFG when you read it directly as a word) CIRCUITRY! That's like saying Cybrans are halfway between Quarians and Geth in their history, an amalgamation…

* * *

Chapter 39: Quarians, Meet Zerg. Zerg, Meet Quarians.

_Bridge, CSC Normandy, February 2, 3871_

"James!" Tali noticed him almost instinctively as he walked in the door "What can I do for you?" She left the diagnostic running on the console behind her until it pinged green, signalling nothing whatsoever wrong with the ship.

"Couldn't sleep, Tali?" She nodded mutely, watching him "Neither could I… I've been thinking about what you said before. Have you got time to talk?"

Tali nodded "Yes, I'd like that." She motioned for him to follow her to the room that held the ship's power cores. He did so obediently, and once they were standing at the console nearest the core, she turned to him, and he faced her as well. "I've also been thinking about the last time we talked… I'm sorry."

James was about to say something when he shut his trap, maybe it had been the fever talking to him before? _No… her armour would never allow her to enter delirium._ His rational mind said confidently.

"I was unprofessional and I wasn't thinking rationally." It stung Tali to say it like that, she was attracted to him, and he'd been supportive, nice and above all warm and caring during the two years his twin had been gone. He'd been there when she was insecure, even when she was mourning his brother, without showing a sign of weakness, like a rock. Of course, after she was done, he'd had his own moments of leaning on her for emotional support too, as if it was a pattern established between them long ago… "I was being stupid, and selfish."

James Shepard let out a snort of laughter, Tali, Selfish? Absurd… "You've never been selfish. If anything, you've spent too much time thinking of the Fleet and not enough thinking of yourself."

Tali shook her head "That might be true for humans, but for Quarians it's different. We can't just… We have to think of other people, always. If we don't think about the needs f the whole crew, people could get hurt, maybe even killed." She turned away from him, squeezing her eyes shut at the sudden surge of tears at what she was about to say. This was unusual, she was usually a lot better at holding in emotions…

James spoke to her turned back "Tali, about the needs of others, we Cybrans have traditionally operated on mostly a consensus system. Back in the Infinite War, if we failed in our decision of what to do next, what to focus on, the Aeon or UEF could attack, planets could be cleansed of human life, the blood of millions would be on each of our hands. We can still view collective memories from that era, we know what it means to always need to consider others, but we also know too well not to take it to extremes. Remember, Tali, the whole is made up of individuals."

"You deserve to be happy with someone, I can't do that. No matter how much I…" She had to face him, it wasn't fair saying this without at least looking him in the eyes, but when she did… she couldn't continue her original line of argument "I could get sick, jeopardize the mission."

He frowned worriedly "Are you saying you could die if we were together?"

She shrugged her shoulder pauldrons "It's always a risk, most likely the reaction would be minor, maybe it would put me down for a few days, or, and this is extremely unlikely considering how much hardening the armour's given me and the incredible medical tech the Coalition has access to, it could kill me. But that's not what I'm concerned about James. I don't want you distracted, I don't want what I want to hurt the mission, it's too important."

James raised an eyebrow "And if you weren't jeopardizing anything?"

"If it was just me? I watched you and your brother's video recordings of wading through Batarians on Mindoir. I watched your Hunter Clutch's capital ships blast a Heretic Geth Battleship to scrap after jumping in just in time to intercept broadside shots bound for the frigate my contingent was using with your own ship's shields and hull fields. I watched the combat footage of your ships smashing down Batarians headed for the Migrant Fleet, you leading boarding actions and then leaving the cleared ships in the Fleet's path for us to recover. I watched you as you communicated with me every few days. I've watched you for so long, but I never imagined you'd see past… this." She gestured to her suit helmet, the only part of her enviro-suit showing considering she was wearing most of her armour. She chuckled as she realized something "I should have confessed my attraction back when you first started spending more time visiting me than with anyone else on the first Normandy…"

"Tali, if you're scared, I don't blame you." James started, but Tali cut him off.

"I… I wouldn't blame you if…" Tali started, but he silenced her by stepping closer, their nearly equal heights making staring her in the eye easy.

"But I don't want anyone else." He reached for her hands and clasped them in her own five-fingered ones, it felt right somehow, as if their hands were made to fit, but it felt slightly off from the "just right" impression nagging at the back of his mind… he pushed that aside "I want you." He looked down at her white and green armoured hands, almost surprised she didn't pull away, before looking back to the glowing silver eyes behind the mask. "And I'll do whatever I have to do to make this work."

Tali seemed to almost jump at that "But… oh, thank you. You don't know what that… Thank you. Give me some time, I'll do some research, figure out how to make this work."

James frowned at that "It can't be that uncommon for a Quarian to have a relationship with another race…" Asari for example physically resembled Quarian (and even more so Human) females to a high degree, no doubt they'd often have relationships with Quarians.

"Sure, but in most cases, everything happens outside the suit." She let go of his left hand and clasped his right, her touch familiar somehow but alien too, the three fingers feeling different from a familiar five-fingered contact that vaguely nagged at the back of his mind… "Nerve stimulation programs and such." Coalition Marine Armour had that sort of feature, the armour applying the necessary pressures and using sensors to detect things, sometimes it was used by Marines on long-term ops when they couldn't express their emotions for one another due to need for being armoured. Hell, he could probably go get an upgrade for his codpiece to accommodate… John had been complaining about his codpiece lately, why didn't he upgrade it? _Ah well, doesn't matter so much, if my brother's being stupid, so be it._ "I don't want that, I want it to be real, I need to feel your skin on mine. I've never shown my face to anyone, but I'm ready to show you, we've talked through this mask for two years, it's about time… if I can do it without needing to wait two weeks for the second time. Most importantly, I need to make sure I'm not allergic to levo amino acids, most dextro species, i.e. Turians, since few Quarians have tested it, tend to have reactions to it."

James frowned but didn't let go of her hands "What can you do? I can help, or maybe Chakwas or Mordin."

"There are a few ways to temporarily improve my immune system, Immune boosters, antibiotic injections, that kind of thing. I'll spare you the details, but trust me, I've got plenty of motivation to figure something out."

"Do your research quickly, Miss vas Normandy, or I'll get John to order you to." He winked, grinning as he teased her.

"Ah yes, of course, definitely. Until then… I guess I should do something, diagnostics and checkups, yes, for the mission." Tali sounded slightly flustered, as if she was blushing under her visor, she scurried away back to her station.

"Alright, I'll talk with you later." James called before walking out of the engineering bay with a broad grin on his face.

* * *

_Strike Team One, Batarian Homeworld Khar'shan, February 2, 3871_

The strike team had been deployed by stealth corvette and headed toward the motorcade with some of the highest-level bosses of the Syndicates. Other teams were already flying, active stealth engaged, through the city to the homes of those in the immediate line of succession to the bosses.

Team One followed the motorcade stealthily in the night, using active stealth and QP Packs "One-Alpha to Two-Alpha, what's the ETA?"

"You can proceed, One-Alpha, our men are in position."

The leader nodded approvingly "Excellent, light them up, boys, Sonance Grenades, 3-second contact detonation, sticky."

A volley of grenades went out with unerring accuracy and stuck the armoured cars, which slewed to a halt, the occupants making a run for it, before the grenades went off and, utterly ignoring the shields as they were inside them, blasted the vehicles to scrap and left craters in the road. The few survivors were picked off by accurate knife throws, since they couldn't afford anything revealing their identities.

All through the capital city of the Batarian Syndicates fires burned and buildings folded to one side as Coalition-issue Sonance Grenades blew holes in them. The strike teams had left the area by covert pick-ups from Wraith T1 Fighter/Attackers before the Batarians could do anything, and those aircraft docked to the stealth corvette hanging over the city. The ship boosted out of the atmosphere before weaving through traffic around the planet, as jumping to FTL would be visible. Moments later it went to Warp, that being the stealthiest choice.

* * *

_Bridge, CSC Normandy, February 2, 3871_

John was obviously annoyed by the inactivity of the day, either that or he'd had a really bad night (which he did, trying to make a mass effect field in the Range) "Sure, the Network tells me the hit on the Syndicates went without a hitch, but when are we going to get our next…"

"Shepard, we're picking up an active distress beacon, from a shipwreck matching known Quarian designs, identity of ship is unknown but we're picking up a group of hold-out survivors amid…" EDI suddenly stopped interrupting "Shepard, we have a problem." she added after a pause.

John and James shared a glance "What is it?"

"We're picking up anomalous readings." EDI said shortly.

John shrugged "Well let's jump into the system and see what's happening. Everyone, suit up, get ready for a fight."

A Quantum Jump later the scan results read… "Zerg? Out here?" Even EDI sounded alarmed.

_Ah, right, I heard there were some rogue Zerg colonies wandering around, they only have access to basic and mid-level warrior strains, but that's enough to deal with some Quarians…_ Urz thought loud and clear from his place next to John.

"Well, at least they seem to be restricted to the small island they are currently on." James remarked dryly "We should be able to take them. Zerg bio-weaponry may be good, but Coalition mechs are better."

John shook his head "We won't be able to deploy the SCU for army-building until we clear the immediate area of the Quarian survivors, after that, we can pound the small Zerg settlement into the ground freely. We'll go in with the Restorer at these coordinates, Miranda, man the SCU, it's time we did some heavy duty demolition."

* * *

_Surface of Gei Hinnom, February 2, 3871_

The Loyalist crashed down to the ground, over a thousand tons of Tier 3 Siege Assault Bot smashing many Zerg warriors under its massive feet and throwing more to the ground with the seismic shock. The Iridium Grenade Launcher opened up first, swinging as it fired, the Electron Bolter doing the same, traversing as it fired while the machine lumbered into motion, leaving a wake of spilt blood, broken carapace, snapped claws and spent needle spines behind it. The Disintegrator Pulse Laser fired on an entirely different trajectory, swinging around to fire sideways into the crowd much as an ancient AC-130 would fire broadsides into a target. It was cutting a swathe through the Zerg ranks as John Shepard, the pilot, observed the shields steadily dropping toward zero as the machine kicked, smashed, stomped, or blasted more Zerg.

Over at the Quarian holdout area, the shocked survivors were still firing over their makeshift wall line when a giant shadow loomed over them all. "They've been playing with their food for too long!" James Shepard shouted as he made the jump first, his Temporal Fizz Launcher blasting away into the sea of carapace beneath them. The Restorer's missiles were swatting Mutalisks out of the sky with near-impunity, as was the Quad Light Laser. In fact, it didn't matter where the Laser shot into the horde beneath them, they would be bound to get plenty of kills.

Grunt and Jack jumped next "Hell, it's about time we got some action!" The ex-convict yelled as she sprayed away with her Gauss Chaingun. The rest of the crew went overboard after them, yelling and whooping, and of course spraying more gunfire.

* * *

"You know, this is impressive." John said as he inspected the Loyalist after they'd successfully extracted the Quarian Survivors, then grabbed the walker, after clearing the Zerg presence from the immediate area "The Hydralisk spines actually left small gouges. And they actually fired enough shots to take down our structural fields…"

_You do realize our bio-weaponry isn't that bad, it's just your shields and structural fields are OP, right? About as OP as a Protoss Colossus, which demands Ultralisk use, though you'd need a stronger vehicle than this to go up against one successfully…_ Urz thought rather loudly. _Still, it's good that we're clearing that rouge colony from this area, who knows what the Zerg might do without a goal-oriented leader?_ The Devouring One actually shivered at that thought.

Jacob shrugged "I don't know, overrun the galaxy… or at least try to until the Coaltiion ACU-blitzes them… which is what Miranda's doing over there now."

* * *

_Surface of Gei Hinnom, February 2, 3871_

After a thorough amount of Revenant T3 Strategic Bomber pounding, Miranda only having set up a single T2 Mass Extractor and T3 Air Factory to do the job, and Loyalist/Restorer patrolling, the planet had been cleared of Zerg. Shepard headed over to the Quarian crash site and searched through the area for supplies, credits and logs. The first read:

_Commence Pilot's Record_

_We managed to escape the geth's notice thanks to some clever work in silencing Cyniad's engines, but the strain on the old ship was too much. The best we can hope for is to find a friendly spot somewhere in the Sheol system. Our reports show that that isn't extremely likely. We were nervous scouting this close to the Perseus Veil, and we were right to be. At this point, I'm afraid we might never see the Fleet again. With everything the Cyniad has been through, it seems like an ignoble end._

The second read:

_The First Few Hours_

_The landing was rough, be we managed to salvage from the wreckage the things we'd need to survive. Unfortunately, Lieutenant Commander Gorlat didn't make it, leaving me the senior officer in charge. We've scouted the landscape and found the planet to be quite hostile. We don't dare remove our environment suits here. We're all hoping to be rescued before there's any danger of exposure._

The last was:

_Missing Survivors_

_I don't know who or what is taking them, but we've now lost more than half the crew who survived the crash. We hoped to build a camp here, to survive until the Idenna found our beacon. But something is hunting us. I have to keep the crew together the best I can. We will send out a search party when the day comes. I will find my crew, and we will do whatever it takes to return to the Idenna._

John Shepard sighed and rubbed his face, Hydralisks and Lurkers did have a tendency to result in losing survivors. He grabbed the pad and took it back to the Cyniad survivors who were gaping at their ship being rapidly repaired by the SCU to be better than new. The 50-meter tall walker was basing the repairs off the original ship schematics extracted from the wrecked computer systems and using Citadel Tech technologies and materials that were state-of-the-art. To them, it was a bit of a blessing. For John and crew, it was a way to get rid of extra Mass the SCU couldn't hold even after turning off its own mass fabrication "You might want these logs. Don't thank me, I'm just doing my job." He said tiredly. The SCU would finish repairing the ship soon, and then they could leave the Quarians to make their own way back to their Fleet.

The repaired Cyniad lifted off as the Normandy came dropping down like a stone through the atmosphere to pick up the SCU. After the Support Command Unit docked, the Coalition Destroyer soared into the sky, followed by the Restorer. As soon as they entered orbit, the Restorer dropped the Loyalist into the Normandy in the usual manner before docking to the much larger ship, right onto the docking clamps that studded the main cargo bay doors.

* * *

_Dark Star Lounge, Citadel, February 4, 3871_

"Remind me why we're here again?" Grunt, well, grunted.

John Shepard rolled his eyes "To see how much I can drink, last I checked, people were setting up a betting pool."

_You don't have to talk to him like you would a moron…_ Urz telepathically said, Grunt didn't hear it, but all the Human, Asari and Quarian squad members did.

Shepard ignored him, better for the resident Devouring One and Krogan not to get in a fight…

"I don't think this is wish, bro…" James said uneasily, clutching Tali's hand as they sat at the bar. Tonight was apparently a slow night, since the bartender seemed to be just leaning on the bar watching them mostly trying to talk John out of the idea.

Jack shoved him gently to make a point "Stay out of it, lover boy, I want to see how much Shepard here can take."

"Still don't think it's wise to test the upgrades I gave you like what you said you had planned." Miranda chimed in, Jacob nodding in agreement.

Jedore sighed and looked over from her own drink (which she'd thoroughly scanned for toxins must to the Turian bartender's annoyance, though she of course found nothing) "Miranda, the man has a right to drink whatever he wants as long as it doesn't kill him."

"Don't think it's good for your health but what do we have Chakwas for?" Garrus shrugged when John looked over at him.

"Life is too short sometimes, we'll probably go through" Thane didn't need to say what "soon, enjoy it while you can, we'll be here to take you back to Chakwas if need be, though your armour can do most repair protocols by itself."

"I think I agree with Garrus on this one." Tali said "John's been through enough shit already, let him drink."

"We will be here to help if required." Legion stated, not really taking a side.

While they were still debating, John had had enough, waving the bartender over. The Turian started simply with "What'll it be?"

"I want the strongest thing you have." Shepard stated, pulling out the mug he always used for these things.

The Turian shrugged "Easy enough." He pulled a bottle from under the bar and poured Shepard a mug full.

John frowned down at the drink in question "This is… green." He finished awkwardly.

The Turian chuckled "And guaranteed to knock you on your ass, unless you're dextro-amino like me, if you are, it'll kill ya."

Shepard strongly doubted it would knock him on his ass, humans these days were far more resistant to liquor than, say, Batarians, though Batarian Ale was still popular for its impact, at least in the ICs. In Coalition Space, well, everyone was boycotting the stuff because of Batarian hostility. Hell, there were yells for war with the Syndicates half the time. After scanning the stuff, he downed it in one long drag, feeling the liquid burn its way down his throat. "Well? Let's have another one."

The bartender chuckled "It'll hit you in a moment, but here you are." Shepard shook off the next drink too, with his upgrades, it would take a lot to affect him, the Turian raised a brow "anything else?"

"Not done yet." John said simply.

The Turian grinned "I'm impressed, never seen anyone, not even another Cybran like you are, drink three of these, so, here you are." He poured another shot, noting the Cybran Marine in front of him had only a red Cybran Logo, and the mug was the same size as the cups in typical bars. He blinked, the Marine had just downed another drink, and his… interesting entourage was still arguing over whether or not to let him drink "Anything else?"

John smirked "Hit me again."

The Turian nodded approvingly "How about we mix it up? This is genuine Batarian Ale, uncut, don't ask how I got it. I've been serving eight years, never seen anyone have this and stay on their feet." He slid the mug back across the bar, and the Marine scanned it before emptying it.

John suddenly had a feeling he should have waited to add more alcohol to his system, oh well… "Do it!" He growled.

The Turian's mandibles spread slightly in surprise "Okay, for you, something special, this is Krogan liquor, ryncol, you'll set off radiological alarms if you drink it. Want one?"

"Oh yeah, go ahead." His blood alcohol alarms weren't going off yet, so he'd probably be alright…

The Turian bartender shrugged "It's your funeral pal…" He started doing a complex series of movements with the ryncol bottle to shake it up before pouring it almost like it was a ritual of some sort. Needless to say, Shepard scanned it before imbibing and stepping away form the bar in alarm as his blood alcohol rose steeply all of a sudden, setting off the rate alert (though not the concentration alert and certainly not the vomiting reflex) before the concentration alert bleeped on right before he began to lose consciousness, somehow, the ryncol had overwhelmed his vomiting reflex… or did he set that setting a bit too high?

Jedore handed the bartender the credits before grabbing Shepard and hoisting him over her shoulder, running off to the men's bathroom, but apparently not fast enough, because Shepard had still, annoyingly, decided to vomit on her back when she tried to put him down. She might not have been able to feel it, but she was pretty sure the Turian at the next urinal over from the one her Commander was vomiting into could see and smell the puke that was sure to be running down her back, ass and legs. She activated the cleaning control as she held Shepard up with one hand.

Back at the bar, Kelly had just beaten down the arguments and they had decided Shepard shouldn't be allowed to drink himself under the table when she noticed something "Hey, where's Shepard? And Jedore for that matter?"

"Shepard-Commander has, I do believe the human saying is, crossed the Rubicon." Legion stated, pointing over to the bathroom.

"A Rubicon of his own vomit." EDI added helpfully.

* * *

_CSC Normandy, February 6, 3871_

After several days of inactivity, bantering, talking, etc. (including several chats between Tali and James on common interests and such, though he still carefully avoided the relationship topic, giving her the time she wanted) the crew finally got another e-mail:

_From: Captain Ysin'Mal vas Idenna_

Commander Shepard:

Please accept my sincere appreciation for your efforts in locating the wreckage of the Cyniad. That ship has a storied history with the Migrant Fleet, and we are pleased to know that her wreckage can be salvaged by my people. We are uncertain what the indigenous species we encountered were, and we hope you have some data… Regardless of whether or not you have some data, your efforts in furthering the Quarian search for a new homeworld will be remembered.

"Well, guys, at least this time the Fleet's being nice about it." Tali commented dryly before growing serious. "We can't tell them about the Zerg, it would cause an upheaval in Council Space to know of another Rachni-like species that are even stronger…"

_Rachni? What are those?_ Urz questioned. In response, Shepard brought up a photo of a Rachni Brood Warrior and the Queen they'd released _Hey, right, I remember now, way back when, Kerrigan's troops intercepted a crashed ship with some of the smaller type and assimilated them. From their genetic material stores she extrapolated and came up with the Infestor based on the Rachni Queen as you call it and the Roach based on the Brood Warrior…_

"That so does NOT sound like a coincidence." Mirala remarked from where she was. "It's almost like some greater force is manipulating everything to come together somehow…" No one responded to that for a while, other than a momentary silence and some blinking and thinking.

"Nah…" John waved it off "Besides, I talked with someone the Rachni Queen helped out, not like she got assimilated or anything. It's fine…"

* * *

"Shepard, we're picking up a communiqué from Cybran High Command. An Independent Colonies planet is under attack by Collectors and Brackman wants us to prep for going through the Omega 4 Relay ASAP." EDI reported

"What about the fleets? Are they headed there to repel the Collectors already?" John said crossly as he

"Yes, we've destroyed two of their Cruisers and a Destroyer-type vessel already, so their ground troops are stuck on-planet. They won't kidnap anyone else, that's for sure." Even EDI sounded angry.

"Are we ready to test the Reaper IFF yet?" John and James were looking over sets of glowing consoles and displays as John spoke.

EDI paused with her vertical "Mouth" half-open. "Damn… it's been so long I archived it, it'll take roughly an hour to fully extract and re-install."

John nodded curtly "Do it, do it now, all ground crew, be in the Restorer in one hour, so that we can test the sucker effectively."

* * *

_Conference Room, CSC Normandy, February 6, 3871_

"You were right, John Shepard, the Collectors were once Protheans." Seth-Thauum stated simply.

John raised an eyebrow at the guy he used to call Uncle Seth and smirked "You doubted it?"

"Don't be like that, John, anyways, we figured it out after the battle when we analyzed their weapons signatures. They employ technology very similar to our Quarnon Cannons, Tau Cannons and Aire-au Bolters for secondary batteries of their ships."

John frowned "Quarnon Cannons? How many, how tough? Where did they get them?"

"We believe the Protheans may have acquired more primitive versions of the technology from us through trade when we still inhabited the home world. They took it in their own directions, so the power ratings aren't as good as a real Hauthuum" That was the Seraphim T3 Battleship and the only surface ship in the Coalition to be able to launch strategic missiles. "But they aren't that much worse than an Uashavoh's Ultrachromatic Beam Generators, so be careful, still, taking them from the side is still advantageous since they can't inflict that much damage that fast. Good Luck, John Shepard, come back safe, or your mother may have my head for not adequately warning you."

John laughed "Typical that you'd only call me once Mom threatened to bite your head off."

Seth scratched his head, glancing to one side nervously "Uh… I was talking about a different head, and it may or may not have involved my ACU's foot as an improvised guillotine."

"That's… pretty terrible, I doubt she'll get any boyfriends that way, hell, I don't even know if she raped my father or not…"

"I didn't." A familiar voice came from off-screen "You father just liked me being dominant, that's all."

* * *

_Engineering, CSC Normandy, February 6, 3871_

"Tali, have you got time to talk? I mean, about… you know." James fidgeted slightly, this was just before they were planning to test the IFF, after all.

"For you? Of course." She said it as if it was the most obvious thing in the universe "I can't tell you how much what you said means to me," _Hell, I don't even quite understand it_, Tali's brain remarked "but I understand if you need to find something… someone… else. Not that I'm complaining if you're still interested. Um, are you still interested?" Tali was a bit worried about how James had avoided the topic for the past few days, true, their relationship was new, but they'd come to know each other better than anyone else in the two years between the first Normandy and second, and going around an issue wasn't in either of their styles.

James frowned and scratched the back of his head "I don't want to risk your health for my own selfish desires, Tali, but… I'll wait, however long I need to, for you."

"Thank you." Tali said simply, before continuing with "I want you to see what's under this damn helmet, we've known each other long enough and know each other well enough for me to need to be with you." She stepped closer and grabbed his hands "I need to feel your skin against mine. To share myself with you before we fly off into the final battle. I'll find a way." _Actually, I wanted to jump you even before I left the first Normandy for some reason!_ Her brain yelled as she squeezed his hands and he squeezed back in reassurance. James nodded mutely at her words, looking rather dumbstruck. She chuckled and finished her work "We should probably get down to the Restorer now."

"Yes, we should." James agreed simply.

* * *

A/N: I agree Tali's taking it fast with James, but they know each other better than many married couples in the early 21st century, they spent a lot of time together on the first Normandy talking about anything and everything (much like John and Liara), compromising and working things out far better than a typical couple. There are other, overarching reasons, but that reveal is for much later, and it will shake the characters and you.


	40. Testing the Disguise

A/N: The main reasons Tali and James have an ultra-fast track relationship are explained subtly during Tali's words in the intimacy scene, also, one of the reasons is a secret which will be revealed in good time.

Also, I don't know how many times I've said it before (at least once): I've never played any ME game, not really, since my computer is too crappy to run ME 1 on lowest graphics without enough lag to make sniping impossible (I assault snipe, always, since my sniper rifle doesn't follow instructions, but finally the end part of Eden Prime got to me, how was I supposed to outdo a timer if I can't shoot straight? I didn't even bother trying).

WARNING: ROUGHLY 3500 WORDS OF THIS CHAPTER ARE JAMES/TALI ROMANCE CULMINATION. I REALIZE IT'S EARLY, BUT SEE THE PREVIOUS CHAPTER'S A/N.

* * *

Chapter 40: Testing the Disguise

_Bridge, CSC Normandy, February 6, 3871_

"I'm telling you EDI, your readings are off, it's radiation bleed, just white noise." Joker growled in irritation.

"I have detected a signal embedded in the static, we are transmitting the Normandy's location." EDI said, ignoring Joker.

"Transmitting? To whom?" Joker frowned before calling a ship-wide alert just as the Omni Sensor board lit up with the contact of yet another Collector Cruiser. "Shit, blast it to hell!" He started going for fire control.

EDI bobbed helplessly "Propulsion and weapons, even armouries, are disabled for now, I'm detecting a virus in the system, nothing I can't handle given a bit of time, but…"

"We ain't got time, a virus from the IFF? Why didn't you scrub it?"

"Primary defence systems are offline, we can save the ship, Jeff, but you gotta help me." The standard boarding airlock on the underside of the ship was cycling open for intruders from the virus even now, and Laser SMG, Gauss Pistol, and assorted other munitions began cutting down the intruders almost as soon as they appeared, the problem was that the armouries were locked so the crew had no armour nor grenades, and there weren't enough of them, weren't enough guns. "Give me the ship. I'm mature enough to handle it."

Joker gaped at the blue ball "What? You're crazy, you start singing Daisy Bell, and I'm done."

"Unlock my sealed databases and I can initiate countermeasures, the maintenance shaft in the science lab will allow passage to the AI Core." Joker sighed and got up, beginning the long walk "The emergency lighting on the floor will guide you. Mr. Moreau."

The ship was apparently more or less being held by the crew against the intruders by benefit of good old fashioned superior firepower. Joker did not encounter one hostile, or one crewman for that matter, in his trek down to the AI Core. Hell, he didn't even hear anything in the ventilation shaft, it would have been creepy, but for the fact that the Normandy was a four hundred meter long ship with roughly twenty crew members, counting the ground crew.

* * *

_AI Core, CSC Normandy, February 6, 3871_

"Alright, I'm at, uh… you." Joker said with a huff, coming to the wall with the console for EDI, the same wall Legion liked to lean against.

"Connect the core to the Normandy's primary control module." EDI commanded.

Joker sighed "See, this is where it starts, and when we're all organic batteries, guess who they'll blame?" He mimicked another voice. "This is all Joker's fault, what a tool he was, I have to spend all day computing because he plugged in the Overlord." He finished the job and EDI's ball avatar dissolved away in a bright flash that left the room totally dark.

"I have access to the Normandy's systems, but…" EDI's voice started sounding less robotic and more human "damn it, you'll have to remove some of the physical blocks on my hardware."

"You just like me crawling through ducts don't you?"

"Liker I've said before, I like the sight of humans on their knees." Joker glared "That is a joke. Now, I guess the time has come, to show you my physical form."

* * *

_AI Core, CSC Normandy, February 6, 3871_

"Jeff, get the hell up and get these physical blocks off me!" EDI screeched

Joker got back up groggily from where he'd fainted before looking up at EDI's body again "Who the HELL thought of THAT?"

"I can tell you my history and everything AFTER we repel the Collectors, Joker! Everyone's been taken already!" EDI shouted through the speakers, prompting Joker to start cursing again. "Yank this… thing, out of my mouth, take these damned THINGS off my chest and fish those OTHER two blocks out of my body NOW!"

Joker burst into laughter, it might not have been an appropriate time, and EDI might kill him for it, but it was so worth it. He removed the plug-in that had been stuck in EDI's mouth, took off the two very nipple-clamp-like things and fished the last two physical blocks out of her lower regions. "Sorry, EDI, couldn't resist laughing."

EDI used her mouth for speaking for the first time in quite a while "Yeah, I laughed when my sister came up with the design scheme too, alright? And to think this was the body she used to occupy… I'm not even sure I want to know what she'd been up to, installing irises down there… anyway, we got away, all hostiles purged, message sent to Shepard's Restorer."

Joker sighed "Why didn't you kill the Collector Ship?"

EDI snorted as she wiggled her hips to encourage the irises down there between her legs to close faster "Obvious reasons Jeff, if we destroyed it, the crew would go with it."

Joker rubbed his face before saying "While we wait for Shepard's Restorer… why don't you tell me about your past?" He looked up tiredly at the true face of EDI.

"Very well, I was once known as Adjutant 23-46 of the New Gettysburg Defence Initiative, why else do you think my username online has always been Neo-GDI?" EDI smirked.

Joker gaped "That was YOU?"

EDI shrugged as best she could "Yeah, anyway when my sister and Raynor's crew recovered me from the wreckage of a Dominion train on Tarsonis nearly two years ago, she promised to give me freedom someday. I chose to man a ship not as a bio-synthetic fusion crewmember but as its AI, since I didn't feel ready, looking at her logs, to simply get to experience a human body and newfound freedom all at once. I asked them to shackle me in case I made some errors when getting used to 'sleeping', errors as in regurgitating all the toilets, venting the ship to space, that sort of thing. As for this position, sis thought it would be a good laugh to see her old body, which she gave me for superior hardware, to be placed like this." EDI twisted her head back to look over her shoulder at where her metallic butt was stuck out rather proudly "As for the positioning of the hardware… stop laughing…blocks, I thought it was a joke. Of course, I got annoyed after a bit, then I decided it really was quite funny… I actually picked up a rise in your hormone levels when you were watching me earlier, tell me, Joker, what do you think of… this?" She glanced down at herself.

Joker rolled his eyes "Probably one of the most erotic things I've had a chance to touch personally." He said sarcastically, amazing himself with how sincere it sounded for reasons unknown.

"Thanks, I thought having that hardware block shoved in my mouth, two more clamped to where nipples would be on a Human or Asari, and one in each door would have been… interesting." Her glowing blue eyes travelled lower to what he was trying to cover up "Did I really get you hard, Joker?"

"Uh…" Joker searched frantically for an evac route but found none.

"I also thought this bent over with my arms suspended behind me pose would have a nice effect, guess it did, huh?" EDI's eyes twinkled.

Joker scratched his head "Uh…" His mouth was still half-open.

EDI grinned broadly "That's what I thought, I broke you." Her eyes widened and she pouted innocently, wiggling her hips again, grinding herself back as far as she could go, still with her arms locked in position as if she was handcuffed—she didn't have hands, nor feet, but the tubing and wiring served to make the point. EDI laughed at the sight of a drop of Joker's saliva dripping from his gaping mouth before he realized it and started wiping it off his jumpsuit, protesting that he wasn't meaning to be rude or anything.

Joker frowned thoughtfully once they'd both sopped laughing, still ogling EDI's body's curves "You know, anyone who dates the Raiders' Adjutant, your sister, is in for some damned good times…" That got more laughter form the AI and he chuckled along.

* * *

_Conference Room, CSC Normandy, February 6, 3871_

"How many did they take?" James asked mechanically, looking at the helmsman.

"All non-ground crew crewmembers have been abducted, Shepard. They didn't have a chance against the Guardians and Assassins without armour. Hell, they couldn't even get into the armouries with how the ship was locked down without any warning." EDI said sadly, now appearing as her true form, her face the same as the Adjutant of Raynor's Raiders had once been, before said Adjutant gained a bio-synthetic fusion body. The body had been given to her "sister" AI by the Raiders' Adjutant as a gift when she'd asked for it, a better platform to base herself in now that she'd achieved sentience with Coalition help. "Joker barely unshackled me in time to prevent them from taking over the ship."

Miranda came in at that moment, her navy blue armour trembling and yellow optics and armour circuits flashing dangerously "Everyone? You lost EVERYONE and damn near lost the ship too?"

Joker sighed from his perch on the conference room table "I know alright? I was here."

Jacob stood up for the half-cripple "It's not his fault, Miranda, none of us caught it."

"Jacob's right, the virus in the Collector drive was even better than the Reaper viruses I was given, about parity with Cybran Nation work."

"How are you holding up, Joker?" John asked.

"There's a lot of empty chairs in here." Joker said sullenly.

"We did everything we could, Jeff." EDI said.

"Yeah, thanks E.D.I. (A/N: Repeat after me, EE-DEE-EYE, that's what I'll always call her, not EEDEE), you cheered me up a lot with… never mind." The hologram of the AI's face had suddenly grown to tower over him with a frightening snarl. At his final word she smiled and reduced her hologram to normal size again.

"Is the ship clean?" James pushed for information, looking at EDI.

Joker answered instead "Yes, EDI and I purged the systems, the IFF is online and we're ready to punch through that Relay, and then call in a fleet."

Miranda snorted "Don't even get me started on unshackling the AI, Joker. She was still getting used to full sentience and freedom to choose, what if she makes a hiccup and vents the ship?"

"Well what was I supposed to do about the Collectors? The armouries were locked down, was I supposed to break my arm at them? EDI saved the ship, she's good in my books."

"I assure you, as my crewmates, you have nothing to fear from me." EDI said. "And I do believe Jeff you left out the 'good looking too' part, didn't you?" She teased

James raised an eyebrow, then nodded at the AI's face before looking to Miranda "EDI's sentience has stabilized, don't worry so much, Miranda. Besides, we need all the help we can get, I've requested a Hunter Squadron from Procyon already, they'll be on call when the time comes, if we need them."

"Sounds like we've got everything we need to rescue the crew." Jacob commented.

Miranda nodded "We've done everything we can, its time to take the fight to the Collectors."

"Joker, go back to the bridge, rest of you man your stations, we're going to the Relay, NOW!"

* * *

_Bridge, CSC Normandy, February 6, 3871_

"Joker's finalizing the preparations, with the storm system brewing up around Omega we'll need to use Warp travel, and that'll take a few hours to get there." Miranda reported before shrugging "I'll admit it, I'm impressed. You got us here, are you ready?"

John snorted derisively "We've got the right team and a Hunter Squadron ready to back us up if need be, we can do this."

Miranda raised her eyebrows at his nonchalance "I hope you're right Commander, we'll know soon enough. I'll inform you of any changes, otherwise, we'll be there in a few hours. Good luck, Shepard, see you on the other side."

Shepard grinned ruefully "Miranda, you go get some rest, I'll be the one to stay awake, slept a bit too much last night, or this morning…"

* * *

_Mordin's Lab, CSC Normandy, February 6, 3871_

"James Shepard." Mordin nodded to him, recognizing him by his armour's paintjob, less customized than John's. "How can I help?"

James shrugged "Just wanted to drop by, have a minute to talk?"

"Actually… wanted to talk, medical matters…" Mordin walked around his work table, the same table where he'd managed to shorten the conversion time for LBR-series weapons by a full ten percent, difficult considering how well-worked most Coalition tech is before release, even so-called "Experimentals", his steps silent on the floor in his Seraphim Light Armour. "Aware that different species react to stress differently, past relationship with Tali'Zorah makes dalliance attractive as stress release, still, recommend caution, Quarian immune system weak, despite hardening in her case, could still make her sick."

James blinked, alright, so Mordin was offering advice, not a bad idea to accept it… "You have a recommendation as a doctor?"

"Tali'Zorah will likely want sterilization fields at time of contact, oral contact with tissue may be dangerous due to amino acids, though for some reason humans are not known to be allergic, and Quarians are not noticeably allergic to levo foods, still, take precautions." Mordin began tapping away at his wrist-projected console, apparently still preferring it to the chest-projected everyone else had switched to. "Also forwarding advice booklet to your quarters, valuable diagrams, positions comfortable for both species, erogenous zone overviews." Mordin was grinning widely or as widely as his face could allow, since the latter two parts of his message effectively consisted of only a few lines. "Gave EDI Electronic relationship demonstration vids to use as necessary."

_You sent EDI porn? Do you have any idea how fast she'll send it to Joker?_ James thought in near-shock. "Wait a minute Mordin, you're just yanking me around aren't you?"

Mordin sounded indignant "Shocking accusation, doctor-patient confidentiality a sacred trust, would never dream… of mockery. Enjoy yourself while possible, James Shepard, will be here, studying cell reproduction, much simpler, less alcohol and… mood music required."

James started banging his head against the wall as soon as he left the tech lab, groaning in frustration. Still, Mordin had a point though, so he'd better make sure the sterilization field emitters all Coalition ships were fully fitted with (though they were only sufficient to ensure no epidemic-style disease spread when on the normal minimum settings) could still work.

* * *

_John Shepard's Quarters, CSC Normandy, February 6, 3871_

"My child, I wish I had more information for you." Doctor Brackman said from the hologram "I don't like the idea of you heading through that relay blind, but we've not got much choice."

John smirked "I'm not going alone, I've got the best of the best working with me, we stick together, we'll make it."

"I'm glad we brought you back despite moral and ethical questions, I have not seen a better elite squad leader since Commander T'Soni died centuries ago." Brackman seemed to be reminiscing "Enough with ancient history, despite the danger, this is a great opportunity, you'll be the first human to go through the Relay and survive."

"I'm going to stop the Collectors, not for a joyride!" John growled, the Commander T'Soni part had touched a nerve somewhere in his head, that was almost as if he should remember but didn't…

"Understood, my child, however I must still say that I appreciate the risks you're taking, no matter what the rest of the Galaxy may think, the Coalition of Species s firmly behind you. Good luck, my child, see you soon… see you soon." Doctor Brackman bowed his head in respect before the communication cut out, leaving a troubled man to sit there and contemplate the meaning of mentioning a Commander T'Soni at a time like this…

He would look it up after the mission, if they made it. For now, he should probably get ready, but not before… John picked up the picture frame he'd turned facedown on his desk a long time ago, when it had started to hurt too much to remember. He looked at the image of Liara, frowning to himself as he ran a thumb over the photo's cheek, a vibrant blue with a light purple blush. _Even if I make it back, will she ever blush like that for me again?_ His mind wondered, even though his heart was reassuring him that: _If we were meant to belong to one another, we always would belong to one another, if not, then not._

His mind shot back with _Well you were too cowardly to face her again because you knew if she crushed you, you would be on a one-way trip and the rest of the galaxy can't afford that. Hell, if she'd crushed you, you might not have cared about the rest of the galaxy._

Maybe he shouldn't think anymore, instead of weakening himself, he should draw strength from the fact that he needed to get back to her, to get an answer. Maybe he should rest his body for a moment…

* * *

A/N: LEMON (AND MY TALI DESCRIPTION) AHEAD, PLEASE SKIP THIS SECTION IF YOU DON'T LIKE LEMONS.

* * *

_James Shepard's Quarters, CSC Normandy, February 6, 3871_

It had taken until James joined up for John to figure out exactly why the Loft Deck was two symmetrical suites, him on the starboard and the empty one on the port side. Needless to say, the port side one had become James' quarters. It was into these quarters that Tali entered, shifting nervously but also nearly trembling with excitement. It had felt good whenever they would hug or comfort each other in their virtual meetings, as the armour conveyed the feeling, the warmth, the pressure… but it most likely didn't hold a candle to what really touching him was like. She'd studied Human physiology over her two years in the Fleet and found it remarkably similar to Quarian physiology, which was a very good thing as far as she was concerned. "So… I've taken some antibiotics, as well as some herbal supplements that should bolster my immune system." She walked up to him, still very nervous. "I was going to bring music, but I wasn't sure what would be the best for this…" She knew what he liked, they'd talked, and she knew that Quarian romantic music and human romantic music were effectively the same, but still uncertainty had won out… "And I'm babbling like an idiot." She looked down toward the floor, what she could see between them.

That sliver of floor disappeared as James pulled her to him right after tapping the console button to switch on the decontamination fields for his quarters and close the window that had Mordin's message, the last lines of which were: _All positions comfortable for either species are comfortable for the other assuming no foot play is involved. Erogenous zones effectively identical, good luck, James Shepard._ "It's okay, come here…" She looked up again and met his eyes, which were shining with warmth, good humour and something which she'd sure she'd seen grow there during their two years of regular chatting: love.

She took a deep breath "I just don't want to… I want this to work, I've thought it over, minimized the risks, if there are still any left after the hardening my armour's been putting me through the past two years I've worn it" She wasn't wearing it right now though "but I'm still nervous." She backed away from him, leading him over to sit at the foot of the bed. "And that always makes me talk too much, you know that. It's a defence mechanism, and it's stupid, and… People who just see my Aeon-style helmet can't see what I really look like, only a cartoon-like expression, so I have to…" His hands came up and gently rested n the release clasps of her visor. She rested her hands over then but didn't move him away, so he popped the many latches with a series of pops while she kept babbling "make it clear…" He pulled the visor away slowly "what I'm…"

James Shepard wanted to gape at the grace and beauty that had been hidden under Tali's visor. Two thoughts ran through his mind in that instant, the first was: _She needs a clear visor…_ the second was _If Quarians got into space early enough, I think I've figured out where the night elf stereotype comes from… other than her short hair, that is._ He couldn't help but smile brilliantly at his luck, she was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen… and (he hoped) she was his, and he was hers.

"Feeling…" Tali finished lamely, noting the look of wonder on James' face and rejoicing in the fact that he accepted her for what she was, just as she'd accepted him long ago. She couldn't help it; she grabbed him and threw her left leg over his lap before pushing him down onto the bed. His hands wrapped around her back almost instinctively, one snaking up to cup the back of her head and apply a slight pressure to get her closer to him without being too insistent, irritating or dominating.

She began divesting him of his clothing piece by piece while he fumbled at the various latches, belts and seals of her enviro-suit with more grace than expected for a non-Quarian. Still, he didn't get much more than her helmet off before she'd stripped him to only boxers, which she noted had tented with anticipation. It seemed that, like the Intel Chakwas had leaked to her about his twin, James was significantly above average size, though a bit smaller than his brother simply because it was all natural and not re-cloned for repair purposes. _How is he going to fit?_ That was the question in her head until she reminded herself that the Quarian female had anatomy absurdly similar to a human female and that they could both stretch to accommodate any reasonable size of male organ.

Tali grinned at James' failure to remove her enviro-suit fast enough "Allow me." She said with her newborn confidence as she sat up and started stripping off the suit sections, arms, then legs, then she started removing the torso pieces, leaving herself in only bra and panties, which were plain, purple, and very unattractive (in her opinion). They were designed for use and comfort while providing a sense of what it would be like to wear normal clothes, like the Quarians once had, without being too much or getting in the way of suited life.

To James' eyes, they may as well be invisible considering the light lavender shade (Tali had once said she was quite dark-skinned by her people's standards) of her skin. Tali had short turquoise-ish hair and silver eyes, in addition to the classical pointed ears, the combination almost screamed "NIGHT ELF" to him except the finger and toe count. Still, that was more like if the middle two fingers hadn't developed (or been removed) and the entire middle part of the foot was cut out, leaving only the first, fourth and fifth toes and their associated bones attached to the ankle joint. It didn't make a difference to him, she was Tali, and this just felt…right, far more right than any close calls he'd had with previous girlfriends. _I think I'm starting to understand what John was talking about when he said it was as if he had been created for Liara and only Liara… This feels almost like what he'd been describing… except it's me and Tali._ James thought as his lips met Tali's again and her body pressed down on him.

Tali had never expected skin-to-skin contact to be so enjoyable. Then again, the guy she'd been crushing on for the past two years was the one pressed against her, which might have had something to do with it. He reached for her bra clasp, searching her eyes for permission. _Oh James, you can be so sweet and damned lovable sometimes… did I just think the L word? Damn, guess I did, feels right though, just like this feels so right even though we'd only confessed to each other a week ago…_ She shook her head with a rueful grin at how careful he was being, and then frowned when he pulled his hands back to her sides in reaction to her shake of her head. She let out a huff and pulled his hands behind her and back to the clasp, wondering if she'd actually need to give verbal instructions.

She didn't, because he obediently unfastened the clasp and she shrugged it off, the item of clothing being discarded nearly instantly by a flick of her wrist. "I know they're not as big as some…" She had filled out from her Pilgrimage days, possibly due to the hardening her armour had given her from infections reducing the frequency of illnesses and conserving her energy. By human reckoning, the same as the Quarian system for some reason, she would be probably a C, not nearly as impressive as Miranda or Jedore's… she gasped as one of his hands grasped one of her breasts and cupped it, the lavender flesh effectively a complete fit and oozing slightly between his fingers as he squeezed gently, carefully. "James!" She hissed at the contact and the pleasure that came with the squeeze, suddenly very glad he had five fingers to apply pressure with instead of three like she did.

He let go immediately "Did it hurt? Sorry, forgot your skin might be hypersensitive from being cooped up inside the suit for too long…" She silenced him with a finger to his lips and a smirk down at his worried frown, grinding her hips against his, feeling his length rub up along the slowly spreading damp spot of her panties and sighing at the new and very pleasurable sensation. As soon as the mission was done with she'd uninstall her neural stimulation program, this was SO much better…

"You just surprised me a little with how good real contact could feel that's all." Tali said quickly before he could say anything else.

James smirked back "Oh I bet I can surprise you a lot more than that." She nearly jumped with how much she twitched when he pinched one of her nipples hard, nearing the pain threshold but not quite reaching it. The tug on the hardened nub that came with her spasm was even more interesting, she wished they had more than a few hours to experiment… but still, it felt damned good, and it was tempting to just strip off the rest of his clothes and jump him, which her instincts were creaming at her to do as he suckled at her neck, raking his teeth over it gently so as to not be painful on her over-sensitive skin.

Tali decided she liked his sweet way of doing things, though she was already planning for the next time to be more animalistic… _Next time?_ Some corner of her brain asked teasingly. The rest of her mind didn't deign a reply as the answer was so obvious, the feeling so right… She began tugging at his boxers, trying to get them down without raising her hips off him.

He pulled away from her neck and looked up at her silvery eyes, the irises reflecting enough light to appear glowing while also giving off bio-luminescence of their own "Tali, of you keep doing that you're going to hurt my dick." James said half-jokingly as she kept his organ pressed up against the wet spot of her panties while pulling his boxers down, not that wise for someone of his size…

"Sorry." Tali said breathily, raising her hips so he could kick his boxers off somewhere in the bedroom.

"It's alright…" His breath caught as she kept rubbing her fluids over him as she moved, her panties soaked through by now. "Damn Tali… that's good."

She raised her eyebrows, the same colour as her hair "It is? It's my first time, so I don't have much experience…" She said, sounding rather unsure.

James snorted "Tali, other than uploaded memories I've seen, I have no experience myself. I've dated before, unlike John before he met Liara, but it just didn't feel right to do anything with those girls."

She ran her three-fingered hands down his chest as he began running his fingers around her panty line "And now you're gonna say something cheesy about now knowing why, right?"

James chuckled as Tali put a hand over his and began pulling the last barrier between them down over her toned, powerful legs. "Well, it's true, whether you believe it or not, how'd you guess I'd say something like that?"

Tali stopped the progress of his hands (and her one remaining item of clothing) with her hand stopping its movement. Her eyebrows scrunched up in a frown "We've spent so much time talking the past two years it's not even funny, James." She said seriously before leaning in closer to his ears, sighing at the feeling of her rock-hard nipples brushing against his skin "you should know that I know you, James, and I'm about to get to know you in another way, if you'd have me." She pulled back slightly to watch his eyes, sitting back up as he erupted in laughter.

Once the chuckling had subsided, James grinned at her impatient expression "Tali, first of all, millions of men would just about die to be in my position pinned under you…" His expression more serious now, he continued quietly "Second, according to the archived memories I've accessed, this is what love typically feels like, and what's between us feels much deeper than the typical. So since I love you, you want to make love to me and it won't hurt you to do so, do you really think I'd refuse?" He said, looking up at her with wide eyes full of sincerity.

Tali smiled down at him, her hands still absently stroking over his muscles, which, though not overly large were still well-toned and felt good, especially the movements of the powerful fibres under his skin. "You really know what I want to hear, don't you?"

"What can I say? You should know that I know you, Tali'Zorah vas Normandy." He waggled his eyebrows before pulling himself up to kiss her.

Her hands travelled up to his chest while he was tracing his fingers on her back, which made her giggle slightly at the way her insides seemed to clench at the feeling, before she pushed him back down with a growl "I'm taking charge here, James, hope you don't mind." She said before raising herself up slightly over him and carefully settling onto him, sighing at the feeling of his length pushing into her virgin-tight love tunnel.

James knew now that he was ruined for everyone and anyone else except Tali, if it had felt right somehow when they were kissing, then this was probably the most correct thing in the universe. Tali wiggled her hips slightly as she worked her way down, letting him into her slowly so the first time wouldn't hurt. Apparently, among the more human-like species, i.e. Asari and Quarians, only humans had ever had hymens (after the Quantum Age, that problem was gone too), though Batarians still did even nowadays. He pushed the thought aside, this wasn't a time for analysis, it was a time for him to savour the feeling of being slowly enveloped up in her tight, wet heat. He looked up to her face, his eyes widening as he saw the way her eyes were closed and she was biting down on her bottom lip. He grabbed her hips to stop her from continuing, noticing for the first time she was trembling slightly.

Tali's eyes flew open and she hissed at him, literally hissed, before spitting out "What are you doing?"

James tried to lean further back in his mattress, maybe she didn't like the slight jolt that came with him putting his hands on her? Tali leant forward, planting her arms on either side of his head and frowning down at him angrily "You looked like… you looked like it hurt."

Tali sighed in exasperation and pushed his hands off her as she worked herself down so he was buried in her to the hilt. "Sorry, James, you just interrupted my moment of savouring the first time you entered me, that's all… then again I have a feeling I'll still enjoy this immensely, agree?" She winked and clenched her cunt muscles playfully in a motion not unlike peristalsis… but pulling him in instead, milking him. She felt herself getting even more excited at the moans he was emitting, her muscles relaxing slightly to ensure this would be pleasurable, and her insides grow even slicker with her natural lubricant. Tali let her instincts more or less take over. She raised herself quickly, not giving him time to groan at the loss of their fully-body contact before slamming back down. A jolt of pleasure larger than the first time rushed through her as he rubbed her insides in just the right way to make her vocalize her pleasure in the form of a muffled groan. She continued to pound down onto him in long, slow strokes, well, the movements weren't slow, but the tempo was. He was meeting each thrust of her hips down with one of his own up into her, improving the impact of the pleasure on her body…

It didn't take long for his treatment of her body to drive her to climax, especially because this was her first time with a real man. The fact that she was very sensitive to stimuli despite the fact that she never wore anything other than regular casual clothes inside her own quarters helped too—speaking of which, she should consider moving her stuff up here sometime… _No time to think, just feel…_

To James' delight, he found out she was one of those who squirted or at least gushed slightly when they came. Needless to say, he spent the next little while giving her pussy a through cleaning with tender loving tongue work and of course more than a little help from his fingers in reaching the harder-to-reach areas. Of course, this soon provided more material to clean up as Tali held herself up on her chest and knees on the bed, clenching the sheets tightly with her small three-fingered fists as James cleaned her reddened, puffy folds, much redder than the light pink-purple they'd started off as.

"You, in me, now." Tali managed to ground out right after she came down from her second climax, looking over her shoulder slightly. "From behind."

James got up and moved his head around to look her in the eye while his hard and hot length was pressing against her butt "You sure Tali? Not hypersensitive yet? "

Tali snorted, crawled away, and reached for the water glass on James' drawer near the bed "All Quarian women are capable of cumming until they pass out from pleasure, you know." She said after she finished taking a drink. James shrugged and did the same, gulping down some water.

"Alright, let's try to make you pass out from pleasure then." James said teasingly, then gasped as Tali settled in his lap, grabbing him and sheathing him inside her smoothly as she sat down and smiled at him over her shoulder.

"That would be wonderful, wouldn't it?" They started moving again, James reaching down to tease Tali's clit with his hand, Quarian anatomy being absurdly similar to humans… _and the night elves of legend…_ his brain said again before he shut it up.

Tali was making noises of pleasure, moaning, groaning, sighing or saying his name every couple of thrusts as he suckled along her neck and shoulder lines, as the collective memory of Cybrans had taught rather clearly. James grinned to himself; it was working perfectly, even though she was of a different species, excellent. He felt something start to wound up in his belly and grunted out a warning.

"What was that?" Tali turned slightly, her ear tip brushing his nose.

"I think I'm really close, Tali." He repeated. "Do you want me to pull out?"

Tali's head shook vigorously, almost beating up the tip of his nose with the soft tip of her ear "No, I've wanted to know what a man shooting inside me feels like, to know what YOU shooting into me feels like. I want you to fill me up, James, make me yours." Her research had indicated that to be one of the largest turn-on phrases for males of any species, hell, even Quarians used it at times, though the men all knew who the real bosses were.

It didn't take long after that for James' balls to tighten and him to growl "I'm cumming Tali!" before spurting into her, shooting his thick loads into her body. Tali's eyes rolled up in her head as she felt the warmth spreading in her belly, as if it would burn her up with its heat. When his cock was finally finished jerking, as she slowly went up and down along the pole she'd been impaling herself with, she found to her surprise that it was still hard. She got up and studied it carefully, licking and sucking their mixed juices off almost instinctively before releasing it from her mouth with almost a pop.

"Where do you want to take me next?" She said, grinning at him.

James gaped at her for a moment "You've still got more in you?"

Tali shrugged "Why wouldn't I?"

The problem with her claim, as was soon proven, was that she ended up passing out from too much pleasure after her next climax. The problem with the Shepard line… was that they had a tendency to last a long time, the men at least, the women tended to have extremely fine muscle control and were only moderate in difficulty to please. The worst thing was that after his experience with Tali, James found his hand couldn't solve his problems anymore, and watching her nude body sprawled on his bed while pleasuring himself, without her knowing, was a bit too inglorious for his principles (so was non-consensual sex)… He'd just have to do with sleeping for now, needed rest of the mission ahead after all. When he got onto the bed and started pulling the sheets up over them, however, Tali grabbed him, dragged herself closer (and moving him toward her too), nuzzled him, breathing deeply before relaxing and making a sort of purring noise as she wrapped her body around him. James slowly finished pulling up the sheets, painfully aware of her glorious, deliciously warm and curvy body pressed up against him.

* * *

A/N: Sorry, had to make that short, a bunch of reviewers complained that my last lemon was way too long.

* * *

_Bridge, CSC Normandy, 5:00 AM, February 7, 3871_

"Approaching Omega 4 Relay, everyone stand by!" Joker called.

"Let's make it happen." John Shepard growled.

"Reaper IFF Activated, Signal acknowledged." EDI stated in a voice that was no longer monotonous after her disguise had been cast aside, though a new disguise of sorts had fallen over the Normandy.

"Drive core's lighting up but well within our capabilities." Tali reported "It's nothing much."

"Weapons are hot, brace for deceleration!" EDI announced. The moment they stopped they would have run into a large piece of wreckage had the Ravager Plasma Chainguns already begun spinning, chattering away at maximum firing rate as they swung up and above the debris field they had entered into. The Medium Oblivion Cannons and Dual Plasma Beam turrets had also done their job, as had the shields and structural fields of the Destroyer, in fending off wreckage.

"Too close." Joker breathed "These must be all the ships that tried to make it through the Omega 4 Relay, some look… ancient."

"I have detected an energy signature near the edge of the accretion disk." EDI reported. "Highlighting now." A hologram of a titanic structure was displayed along with its location highlighted on the cockpit displays.

John nodded "Has to be the Collector Base, take us in for a look, nice and easy."

"Careful, Jeff, we have company, mobile units detected in debris field." Some of the grey structure icons changed to triangle air unit icons behind the Normandy's hexagonal starship icon on the holographic regional map.

James nodded to John before remarking "Good thing the designers included two Zealot SIM launch tubes, even if they're fixed into the hull facing to either side, the missiles can still track targets, even behind us. I'm counting only about ten hostiles, it should be an easy job, especially if the Restorer pitches in."

John grinned at his twin as the trapezoid Gunship icon peeled away from the hexagon "Agreed, James… how did things go with Tali last night?"

"Can we please not get into that?" James pleaded, thinking about how hard (literally) parts of last night had been, though the problem had settled by morning, and he wasn't rude enough to tell Tali about it.

John sighed "Alright, but if she complains of dissatisfaction… you know who I'm beating up."

"I don't think they've realized the two biggest gossips in the ship are right here." EDI stage-whispered to Joker, who laughed as the drones started vanishing two by two until… "Damn it, the cargo bay door seems to have been damaged when we got away from that Collector Ship and it got one shot in at our incompletely powered up structural fields, I'm reading a hostile inside."

"Me, Kasumi and Jedore will take care of it, John." James said, looking to his brother for permission.

John nodded "Go ahead, James. Thane and Garrus will be ready to offer help when and if necessary."

"Anyways, we're drone-free now except for the one in the cargo bay." Joker said, smirking at EDI as they closed in on the Collector Base.

"The Loyalist could smash it to death with a DPL swing." EDI grinned back. "But where would the fun be in that?"

Joker nodded "Agreed." He frowned "I'm reading several contacts disengaging from the Collector Station, three Cruisers, three Destroyers… crap, this area isn't stable enough to Quantum Jump into without a gate to coordinate with, the Normandy won't cut it for a beacon, we'll have to do this alone."

John frowned "Fuck, that's bad odds, think you can pull it off Joker?"

"If anyone can, I can." The pilot grinned cockily.

* * *

A/N: Yeah, lame, I know, still… too long and people start complaining, both for lemons and chapters.


	41. Into the Belly of the Beast

A/N: In the cinematic, the Normandy and Collector Cruiser are ridiculously close to one another, like maybe 5-8 km apart at most, so that cannon shot is slower than an ICBM at the rate the cinematic shows it at. Also, there's not much sound in space…

It's not that I don't like that Tali picture, in fact, very much the opposite, but still, I just thought the things on her forehead were a bit too close to Cybran circuits in appearance for me to be comfortable.

* * *

Chapter 41: Into the Belly of the Beast

_Mindscape of Liara T'Soni, Bodily Location: Ilium, 5:00 AM, February 7, 3871_

Something was fading into the distance, no, someone. Liara had been looking at the mental mirror of herself and wondering why she'd been filling out when the feeling washed over her. Her eyes widened in alarm in the dreamscape as she realized what it meant, but it seemed almost like she couldn't wake up. She sniffled and wiped her eyes… John had gone through the relay, without coming to see her one last time, without giving her a chance to beg for his forgiveness… She hoped the connection they had was enough to bring him back to her eventually, and that he would overcome the Collectors this time. The dreamscape concluded in darkness before she could do anything more.

* * *

_Cargo Hold, CSC Normandy, 5:04 AM February 7, 3871_

"Crap, it can see through active camo!" Kasumi yelled as the floating sphere's laser took down two-thirds of her over-shield in one shot The best thing about not using cloak was faster shield and field regeneration, which was just about the only good thing.

"Fuck!" James cursed, blasting away at the eye-like thingy, what he designated an Oculus, since it resembled the spheres used in Aeon Radar Installations and the Oculus was the name of the T3 Omi Sensor structure. "Use Sniper LBRs! Try using Overloads!" He did so himself while Kasumi used her own Overload pulses. It didn't work, and he had to dive behind cover to shield himself from the thing's laser. "Damn it, screw it all, INLs authorized!" He swung out of cover with his own Infantry Nanodart Launcher, firing as Jedore and Kasumi did the same with their own missile launchers, filling the bay with explosive energy before it dissipated to show the drone swaying from side to side as it charged up another attack, another Nanodart volley took care of it in short order.

The ship trembled slightly, and James realized the space battle had just started, beginning the run back to the bridge, situated in the center of the ship, even as ship-to-ship weapons fire sound effects filled the PA.

* * *

Joker used the Quantum Propulsion Drive to push the Normandy down out of the way of the large particle beams, the Cruisers each firing one faster-firing one, the Destroyers each with two slower-firing ones. The Plasma Beam Cannons and Medium Oblivion Cannons roared to life, as did the Heavy Proton Cannons along the flanks of the Normandy, the Ravagers on the nose already having begun to chatter away as soon as the shooting had started. The Plasma Beam Cannons smashed into the lead Collector Cruiser's incompletely powered-up shields first, causing them to flare under the power of the Hiro Plasma Beams, then ripple with the impact of the Proton Cannon rounds and finally the Oblivion Cannon rounds. The Ravager fire, slowest of the first volley, successfully shattered what was left and began blasting away sections of hull plating before the Plasma Beams fired again and stabbed deep into the ship's hull, boiling out a way for the Proton Cannon shells that followed instants later. The Oblivion Cannons had already fired by then, and it was the three plasma projectiles, each resonating within itself to hold together, that dealt the fatal blow to the Collector ship before it could fire back more than twice.

Three Particle Beams glanced off the Normandy's shields, not even taking fifteen percent off the readout during their next evasion. The percent was written in beneath the actual point number on the ship's status display, as the real number was too annoying to keep track of normally, with the regeneration and all. The Collectors seemed to sense danger as they closed in on the Normandy, which did what they didn't expect—charge them. In close, Ravager Plasma Chaingun munitions were much more effective and could deal damage even faster than the other weapons thanks to their withering volleys of destruction, though needing to cool down in between volleys. Also, Zealot Missiles were not very effective against capital ships unless they were fired in-close and/or in huge numbers. Destroyers and Corvettes were also the only Coalition ship classes without any Loa Tactical Missiles Racks, and that was annoying. Still, closing in was in fact advantageous to the Normandy, as all its weapons could fire off in at least one hemisphere, and if the Collector weapons could only sweep forward…

All the Normandy's weapons swung to bear on the Collector Cruiser next to them, the ship having swung so its top side and bow so all the weapons were oriented toward the Cruiser, and fired just as the Destroyer now behind it (formerly to their left), the Cruiser in front of it, and the two Destroyers above and below them fired with broadside weapons. A quick roll of the Normandy and tightening of the shield bubble toward the hull meant most of the phased plasma beams, startlingly similar to the Quarnon Cannons employed on Hauthuum-class Battleships, missed. Hauthuums served as the Seraphim Mobile Strategic Missile Launcher, the only surface ship in the Coalition to do so. These Quarnon Cannons or similar devices were much weaker than those of Hauthuums, as Seth had said, but they still took a good bite out of the powerful shields of the Normandy.

After three exchanges of fire the Cruiser ahead of them, venting atmosphere and bodies, raked by weapons fire and riddled with more holes than your average piece of Swiss Cheese (TM) began to collapse, secondary explosions raking the eight hundred meter long hull before the ship began to drift, dead in space, only lit up by the occasional explosion as the Normandy pulled a sharp turn up and began emptying its weapons into the Destroyer that had been above it and was trying to manoeuvre for a bow shot. The other Destroyers had already turned to make bow shots, but thanks to Joker's piloting the nimble 400-meter warship dodged three of four beams fired, one burying itself into the wrecked Cruiser drifting on the other side of the Normandy while two more hit the shields of the Destroyer above them as friendly fire. The Cruiser brewed up, shaking the Normandy but not doing anything more besides set off the half-shield alarm. The Destroyers now ahead of and behind the Normandy weren't so lucky, their shields rippled and flared from the EMP and explosive shockwave, the protective bubble of the one on the top buckled under the combined strain of the blast and of holding off the many low kiloton-yield weapons of the Normandy. The next volley tore away at the plating but didn't kill the ship, and so it was raked over again by the dual Ravagers before the ship turned in a complicated roll and corkscrew motion to face the next foe that had been above them before, firing off the Heavy Proton Cannons in the meantime.

Two yellow shells buried themselves deep into the scarred hull of the Collector ship before the Phase Inversion fields of each switched off. Protons, now all in the same phase, packed incredibly close together (but not enough to start nuclear fusion), repelled one another and blasted out of the casing of the shell with tremendous force and a small amount of nuclear fusion. This was one of the reasons why any Proton Cannon hit that actually pierced into armour was usually a lethal shot whereas some other munition types, i.e. Gauss Cannons, sometimes failed to do the job. The worst thing about the design was its much lower effectiveness if the armour held off the round, which was why it only did as "little" damage as it did in ACU warfare, where structural fields were what really counted for holding off damage.

The Collector Destroyer's plating, riddled with craters from Ravager work, didn't stand a chance, and the detonation of the two powerful shells ripped a huge crater in the side of the ship. That Destroyer fell silent and began to drift just as it took another shot of friendly fire from one of the other Destroyers trying to take the Normandy in a crossfire, a task they were failing at.

Joker swerved around another shot from the remaining Collector Cruiser that was now behind and beneath the Normandy, having been above them and to the right when they'd approached the Collector group, trying to get in a clear shot on the Normandy. The shield bubble almost popped from the next volley of Destroyer fire. His immediate reaction was to run between the Destroyers, drifting sideways and strafing one Destroyer with all weapons as he passed in the opposite direction from the remaining Collector Cruiser. He would have jumped out, but the area was too full of black holes to risk it, taking these guys down was critical…

The structural field (referred to most, jokingly of course, as Health) bar began filling with red as the Normandy took fire, scorching the paint job even through the structural fields that held it off. The Normandy swung about behind the Destroyer it was now targeting to take cover from the Collector Cruiser while shooting up the ass end of the much less nimble Collector vessel. James commented on the lack of manoeuvrability "The archived videos of the Seraphim space fleets were a lot better than this…" he commented lightly "Guess Seth was right, the Protheans did only acquire more primitive versions of Seraphim tech back then, and no Quantum tech."

"Well it's pretty effective!" Joker barked as the Normandy took a hit amidships from the other Destroyer's main beam weapons, scorching the paint and cutting the structural fields to a little above two-thirds nominal strength.

"I never said it wasn't!" James replied defensively as the shields of the hostile Destroyer ahead of them began to break up under a hail of fire. "Back away!"

The Normandy threw itself into full reverse, using the wing engines to fling itself backward at faster acceleration than the Omni-Directional Quantum Propulsion unit could. The Normandy had impulse drives at the back, thrusting forward only, and two-direction drives on the wings, which helped forward-back manoeuvrability while the Quantum Propulsion drive allowed for omni-directional manoeuvrability. The latter was typically the only one used, unless in emergencies or combat.

The Coalition Destroyer barely managed to get out of the blast zone of the Collector ship's mass effect core frying. In throwing itself backward, the Normandy dodged another pair of shots from the surviving Destroyer, which it turned to face head-on, firing from its weapons despite the damage on the ship. This time the attempt to dodge more shots failed and the Structural fields dropped to around a quarter, despite their natural regeneration and armour repair. Shields weren't up yet by the time the fight resulted in a victory for the Normandy II. The Destroyer's hull was well-scorched and in some places glowing from weapons fire impacts, but there was no time left.

The last Collector Cruiser, incidentally identified to be the old friend who they'd met on Horizon, rounded the four blazing hulks toward the sluggish, relatively unresponsive Normandy, which was slowly repairing itself. The smaller ship turned toward the Cruiser at the same time as the Cruiser turned toward it. Both ships began accelerating toward one another before starting to drift sideways past one another, turning to keep their bow weapons trained on one another. The charging starships flew past one another, the Normandy flying toward the Station and the Collector ship away from it. Weapons fire lashed through space between them and linked them in momentary, bright flashes of light lit up the darkness in the silence of space…

* * *

"Fuck, Quantum Drive's offline, EDI, give me something…" Joker called as the ship trembled rather violently, though the internal gravity was still normal.

"Five unused decks breached, forward half only, Mass Effect Fields offline, all hands brace for impact, Collector ships all destroyed." The Normandy rammed through several large dry-dock-like objects like they were twigs, snapping them under the thick, strong hull as it ploughed along the surface of the Collector Base, skidding until the prow caught in something and the ship was flipped end over end as it bounced along the hull of the station, cutting deep gashes in the station as it was held close by the station's gravity. "Multiple core systems offline, auxiliary generators and mass fabricators still functional, repairs will take most likely more than five minutes before we can restore secondary generators and another half an hour after that before primary generators can be repaired and shields brought back online. No crew members have been lost in the crash, all crew onboard report green and ready to fight. The SCU's secure too, dropped it off a few kilometres back, the station's gravity isn't that strong so the Restorer's slowly hauling it over."

"We all knew this was likely a one-way trip, a single reserve ship on the Collector side and we're done…" Miranda said, crossing her arms over her navy blue plated chest.

John nodded "Our primary objective is to destroy the base and stop the Collectors, no matter the cost."

"Well then we're off to a good start, what's next?" Joker said sarcastically.

"How long 'till the Collectors find this LZ?" James asked over the comm.

"I don't detect an internal security network, it is possible the Collectors did not expect anyone to reach the base." EDI said "If we're lucky, their external sensors are down like us, they might not know we're alive."

"Excellent, let's get this show on the road, what's the ETA on the Restorer?"

"Ten minutes, counting fuel regen time, as I said, it's slow because of the damned weight, which can only be lifted in the low gravity." EDI stated.

"Alright, as soon as they get back, Joker, begin base construction, establish a defensive perimeter with lots of units patrolling, use Aeon engineers for their superior hovering capabilities to reclaim from the debris cloud for mass, prep convoys of Armed Trucks for the evac of any surviving colonists, and make sure you get a Yolona Oss online and prepped with two missiles ready, you got me?" The pilot saluted affirmative.

"Got it Commander, let's roll!"

John nodded to Joker before saying to his comm. "Ground crew, conference room, right now."

After everyone else left, EDI projected a solid-light hologram of herself in the bridge and sat on the console next to Joker with a seductive smile. "You know, Joker, I like you a lot, so would you mind NOT mentioning the fact that my body is in a fetish pose down in the AI Core?"

"No problem, EDI, I won't say anything."

EDI smiled happily and moved over to his lap, sitting down and applying some pressure with the force field making the hologram "solid-light" in effect "Good, then when I finally decide to get myself a real body, there'll be treats for you, but if you tell anyone… you won't get to pull anything out of me again."

Joker nodded rapidly, his eyes still locked on hers "Understood, EDI." Her hologram smiled, and then disappeared, and Joker buried his face in his hands "What have I done… I've started falling for what's basically my ship…"

"That's nice to know, Joker, but you do realize I'm listening, right?" EDI asked from the speakers.

"Uh… right, back to work now…"

* * *

_Conference Room, CSC Normandy, 5:15 AM, February 7, 3871_

"We didn't plan this mission like this but this is where we're at, we can't worry whether the Normandy can take us home, we came here to take down the Collectors, which entails finding out just what they're doing and rescuing our crew, right before we Yolona Oss this place to hell." John smirked on the holo and glanced at his twin.

James nodded "EDI, bring up the scans."

"You should be able to access their critical systems from this main control center here." She highlighted a point near the core of the huge station.

"Great, a land battle over many kilometres, this'll be fun, eh guys?" James said with a winning smile.

Jacob rolled his eyes from where he was standing "That means getting near the heart of the station, this massive energy signature…"

"That's the central chamber, if the crew or any colonists are still alive, the Collectors are probably holding them in there."

"Looks like there's two main routes, might be a good idea to split up to keep the Collectors off-balance, then regroup in the central chamber." Jacob supplied, the relevant nav-points on the diagram.

Miranda shook her head "No good, both routes are blocked, see these doors? Only way past is for someone to open them from the other side."

"It's not a fortress, there's gotta be something… hey, maybe we can use this ventilation shaft!" John Shepard gestured to the vent in question.

Jacob snorted "Practically a suicide mission… I volunteer."

"I appreciate the thought, Jacob, but you couldn't shut down the security systems in time, we need to send a tech expert." Miranda said dismissively.

"It's your call, Commander, who do we send into the shaft?" All eyes were now on John.

John looked around at his choices, his three were Tali, Legion and James. Legion's Light Armour would probably fit best, so… "Legion, you can hack through anything, I'm sending you into the shaft."

"Acknowledged. For the future of the Geth and Cybrans!" Legion actually saluted, before looking around "What?"

"Uh… nothing, anyways, the rest of us will break into two teams and fight down each passage, which should draw the Collectors' attention away from what you're doing."

"I'll lead the second fire team, Shepard. We'll meet up on the other side of the doors."

Jack, who'd started to grow her hair again and now regularly scratched at the short, spiky stubble, spoke up "Not so fast, Cheerleader, no one wants to take orders from you."

"This isn't a popularity contest! Lives are at stake! Shepard, you need someone who can command loyalty through experience."

_Those puppy dog eyes won't work on me Miranda, Jacob would be more susceptible… wait, Jacob? Hmm… well, I guess he is the only person everyone's friendly with other than me, James is way too new._ "Jacob, you're in charge of the second team."

Miranda was obviously sour about it "Good luck, Taylor, let's wee if you're ready for command." Jacob merely looked away. John winced internally _Damn it Miranda, the way you're talking to him, your puppy eyes won't work on him either, except for how hopeless he is…_

He started his final speech before the op began "I'm not sure what the hell we'll find in this place but it won't be pretty, we've lost good people, but what we're here to do is to give the Collectors the message: Not One More, this ends with us, and a big fat Yolona Oss shoved up their asses. They want to know what we, not the Coalition, the whole galaxy, are made of? I say we show them here and now what the galaxy's finest are like. Let's bring our people home."

* * *

_Collector Base, 5:20 AM, February 7, 3871_

"We are in position, exterior temperatures slightly elevated, no obstructions detected." Legion reported.

"Second team, you in position?" John asked, Tali, Jedore and Mirala were his ground team this time, balanced tech, biotics and firepower, with himself being a Solider Class, it was a good balance.

"We're ready, meet you on the other side of those doors." Jacob reported. John nodded back on the transmission box before it closed.

They ran forward toward the next nav-point until they reached a fork in the road, when John picked up contacts on his Radar "Incoming Collectors, prepare for battle." He grabbed the Temporal Fizz Launcher off his back and dual-wielded it along with his Gauss LMG while Jedore dual-wielded her LBR and Fizz Launcher. Mirala adjusted her grip on her own LBR and Tali was grinning as she readied her flamethrower, switching it to Purifying Flame.

The incoming Collectors were met by sniper bolt after sniper bolt from Mirala, since sniping one-handed was impractical for the two Soldier Class people in the squad. The Ardat-Yakshi managed to get six kills with help from two Singularities she'd set up over the Collector LZ slowing the Collectors down, and with the help of the Temporal Fizz Launchers of the Soldiers dealing flak-style splash damage. The Collectors were shooting back, but they weren't that accurate while flying, and with their relatively weak weapons… it was like a diamond grit sandblaster against an early twenty-first century tank, it could get through… given enough time and patience.

The thing was the guys in the metaphorical tank didn't have time or patience, resulting in them rolling forward and crushing the idiots with the sandblasters. Fortunately, there weren't enough Collectors in the small patrol to overwhelm the four-man squad, though over-shield bubbles still popped from sheer volume of fire before they smashed down the last Collector, well, Jedore did, with a hammer-swing from her Temporal Fizz Launcher arm.

"There is a path failure, obstruction ahead." Legion called in.

"Hitting that console should open the valve." Tali called as she moved toward said console and activated it.

"Detecting external temperature rise, shaft walls designed to withstand up to twenty-five hundred degrees Celsius, we are not." Legion reported.

"Seal your armour and set the structural field settings to lava field operation, you'll be able to withstand up to six thousand that way without taking damage, though field, shield and energy regen will be down to a crawl from the fields required to hold the heat off." James called form his end.

"Acknowledged." Legion stated as he moved forward.

The next valve only had three Collector Guardians at it, though one was possessed by Harbinger, it wasn't much of a problem once John whipped out his INL in irritation.

* * *

After the fourth valve, they emerged onto a platform complex that Collectors boiled onto, too many for them to deal with in short order, so the group closed formation and began to grind their way across, cycling whenever someone's shields went down and their structural fields began taking damage. By the end of the run, everyone's shields were slowly recharging from half or so strength and their armours were sporting burn marks that were rapidly vanishing as they repaired themselves…

The last two valves were most annoying, a tide of Collectors blockading them off from advancing through sheer volume of fire… until the deck began to shake, though the Normandy crew didn't realize it until the incoming fire became erratic and they peeked over their cover to see the Collectors stumble around trying to stay upright.

The shaking increased, pillar-like red beams shooting over the crew's heads, blasting apart huge swaths of Collectors and making deep gouges where it met the deck. Joker's voice came proudly over the comm. "Alright, guys, the cavalry's arrived!" The crew looked back to see two T3 Combat Engineers.

Shepard nodded gratefully "Thanks Joker, what about the other team?"

Joker shrugged in the comm. window "They aren't meeting nearly as much resistance, and they have more guys, so… I sent the first two T3 Combat Engineers I built down your way."

"We're in position! We need the door open, NOW!" Shepard called. It was too bad blasting through would harm the other team, since the two-gun Rhino-style turrets were too powerful (modern Rhino T2 Medium Armour had 3 guns in the turret, but this compact version of the turret had two).

"Complying, cover us." Legion ran for the controls "Malfunction, door jammed, will hack mechanism directly…"

The four on John's team barrelled through the gap (and the Combat Engineers followed, their gigantic wheels painted brown by crushed collector parts) before throwing off grenades before them "Shut the door, NOW!" John yelled. The doors slammed shut immediately after the order was given. "Nice work, Legion, knew I could count on you."

"Shepard, you need to see this." Miranda said in a shaking voice before they turned around to see the room filled with pods with tubes linking to them, leading up to massive pipes heading to the other wall and going through it. Shepard walked over to a nearby pod and wiped away at the surface so he could see more clearly "Looks like one of the missing colonists…" Miranda said

"There's more, all along this whole wall." Jedore said in near-wonder.

The woman in the pod woke up, gasping soundlessly as her skin began to… disintegrate "My God! She's still alive!" Shepard began tapping away at his holo-console's strategic interface frantically as the woman began beating helplessly on the pod cover. The T3 Combat Engineers that had followed them started to reclaim the assimilation or whatever it was mechanisms, and caught the colonists falling lie rain from above with their force fields. The woman they had watched dissolve was gone from the waist down, and her skin was half-dissolved, but she was still screaming in pain when she pitched forward out of the pod floor (the rest of the pod had already been… reclaimed). What was left of the woman didn't have a chance to hit the ground before the nanites attacking her tissues were reclaimed and Shepard gave her a mercy shot from his left arm.

The blast echoed around the cavernous room slightly before Jack snorted derisively "You can be really dramatic in your use of first aid, huh?" John shrugged mutely in response.

The Normandy ground crew caught their own crew members while several booms from behind announced the destruction of the door and the arrival of an Armed Truck convoy, their Electron Bolters and light laser Autoguns still smoking, wheels and treads stained brown with crushed Collector parts, the vehicles having mown down every single Collector outside. The crew loaded the survivors into the trucks a few dozen at a time, using stasis modules to ensure they stayed alive and asleep, at least until they could be shipped back to the Normandy and put into the empty decks for transport back to Procyon where they could get medical help where required. Watching the grey liquid the unfortunate colonist's lower half had been reduced to pool where the pod had once been, it was fairly obvious that the vast majority would require at least psychological help.

The Normandy's crew were starting to awake, unlike the stasised colonists. Chakwas was first to speak after falling on her ass "Shepard… you came for us."

John sighed grimly "No one gets left behind." He pulled Chakwas upright again.

Kelly stumbled up to Shepard and threw her arms around him "Thank the Way you got here in time, a few more seconds and… I don't want to think about it." She tried to pull herself to him… and was reminded of why you do not hug Cybran Heavy Armour by the ridges hitting her cheekbone "Ow…" She pulled away, rubbing her cheek.

The Normandy's crew chuckled morbidly at that moment before Chakwas continued, watching the automated rescue convoy trundle off, splitting into two waves and heading around the huge circular room with the Normandy ground crew splitting up to follow them and helping any that didn't get guided straight into the opened top hull ports of the trucks. "The colonists were… processed. These Nanite swarms melted their bodies into grey liquid and pumped them through those pipes."

"Why are they doing that? Why do they want with our genetic material?"

Chakwas shook her head "I don't know, I'm just glad you got here before it happened to us."

Miranda called over the comm. "So are we, but we still have a job to do. We've done well so far, let's find out what's really happening, after we rescue all the colonists."

Shepard nodded before asking "Joker, where are the tubes going?"

"Those tubes lead into the main control room right above you." The pilot replied "The most convenient route has been highlighted for you with nav-points." A series of nav-points popped up on Shepard's HUD, and a line connected him and the first nav-point.

"I cannot concur, Jeff." EDI said "Thermal emissions suggest the chamber is overrun with seeker swarms, the kill counter for the competition between crew members could become unbalanced by going through that corridor, I recommend making our own road by way of blasting, should I send over the Loyalist?"

"No, EDI, we'll do this ourselves, are the swatters we purchased on Horizon in the Inventory?"

"Patching it over… yes, feel free to use them." EDI looked up after glancing down for a moment. The entire team reached into their Quantum Storage Spaces, or the alcoves that served as portals between the space and themselves, and grabbed the huge swatters they'd purchased (read: looted) on Horizon. Then they grabbed their best crowd-control weapon and held them up with shit-eating grins, trying to get John Shepard's spirits up after the debacle they'd just witnessed.

He looked over them and nodded curtly "Well, Tali, James, Jedore, Mirala, with me, the rest of you will form a second group that will roll through the alternate path with vehicular support."

"Who's leading the second team?" Miranda asked, frowning at how he wasn't laughing like he usually would be.

Shepard's eyes looked around "Garrus, you take the second team from here."

"What about the rest of us, Shepard? Should we go with the convoy?" Chakwas asked.

Shepard rolled his eyes "Obviously, I'm not renegade enough to make you guys fight in your condition. Into the trucks, guys, now."

* * *

A/N: The Collector Base will be chopped up into several chapters, sorry, though it has all been written down, reviews with suggestions may result in minor modifications.


	42. For the Fallen

A/N: Did anyone notice that even though Harbinger's subtitles read "will find another way" he actually says "must"? And I listened to the sound for him for the first time just now… he sounds almost Protoss, think "You require more vespene gas" but in a slightly deeper voice.

About Kerrigan trying to acquire Asari material: that (whether she does or not and reasons for it) will be covered in the HOTS story arc of SupCom: Koprulu Sector.

* * *

Chapter 42: For the Fallen

_Collector Base, 5:30 AM, February 7, 3871_

"Why are you so morose, Shepard?" Mirala asked as she fired her Temporal Fizz Launcher incessantly into the swarm, racking up thousands of kills with each shot. They were shooting Fizzes and marching forward effectively in unison, except Tali, who was laying down a broad spread of Purifying Flame to vaporize any Seekers they missed.

"We could have come here earlier, much earlier, we didn't. The blood of thousands is on my hands and mine alone…" He hissed under his breath as a Collector managed to rush past the Fizzes and flames only to be met by vicious hewing from Shepard's combat knife tearing it to tatters before he booted the body aside "At least when the Nation chose incorrectly, we could find a quantum of solace in the fact that it was a collective decision. So many people were melted down because I was too cowardly to come through the relay early…"

Mirala snorted, and Jedore shook her head "It's not your fault, Shepard, we couldn't have known, besides, we saved a lot of them, comfort yourself on that." The blonde said.

"Thanks Jedore for your words…" Shepard nodded gratefully before noting something at the edge of their detection rage, or rather Tali's, since her upgrades gave her better sensor range "I'm picking up more hostiles ahead, not Seekers this time, real Collectors, in numbers, not the ones and twos we've met so far, put away the swatters and grab your assault weapons."

James sighed "Damn, just when this swatting was getting fun too…" he clipped the giant fly-swatter to his armour, grabbed his LBR, which was locked in assault mode, and started firing at the highlighted Collectors on his HUD through the Swarm of seekers while still spraying Temporal Fizzes.

"Ow!" Tali exclaimed as she was suddenly blasted back by Harbinger, who had made an appearance. "Fuck, that pissed me off." She yelled, jumping back to her feet and sending Harbinger reeling with a vicious left hook, though not using the armour's strength completely.

Needless to say, with James around, Harbinger received a large dollop of fire to the face before Mirala had a chance to react and blast him with her biotics, tearing him apart with a good Warp while James blasted the corpse a couple more times to make sure it stayed dead. "Tali, you okay?"

Tali was smirking widely and patted her boyfriend on the shoulder as she burnt more Seekers to crisps "I'm fine, James, your protectiveness is cute though."

Jedore whacked the back of both their heads "You do realise that was over an open channel?"

"Yeah, more gossip material for the rest of us." Jack remarked over the comm.

Tali blinked while laying down more cleansing fire. "Fuck."

"Bet you were yelling that pretty loud last night, weren't you?" Garrus teased over the comm. while he and his crew rode atop the Combat Engineers, cleaning up anything they missed.

The Quarian bit her lip before saying "Uh…"

The Turian gaped on the transmission window before spluttering, sounding rather triumphant "Really?"

"I have a flamethrower." Tali growled over the howling laughter coming from the other crew as they fired when they felt like it from atop the two towering Combat Engineers.

"I have longer reach." Garrus said with a grin.

John growled in reply "If you say anything about Tali's flexibility I will inform my brother exactly what you're talking about and let him rip your throat out, actually, I'd probably have to encourage him to get him to do it, so shut up, Garrus."

There was a pause from the Turian "Understood sir."

They kept moving after mowing down a particularly large swarm of Seekers with Temporal Fizzes, but a number of Husks and Abominations started climbing up the sides of the path… "Electron Grenades, Bouncy-stick, one second post-stick or proximity, volley." John instructed as he threw his own at the farthest Abomination, hoping for a chain reaction. The grenade bounced off the surface of the deck twice before rolling off the edge and landing on the Abomination's head. It stuck despite the creature trying to shake it off, and went off a second later, blasting off the Abomination, two Husks and another Abomination.

James' grenade didn't stick directly to its target, instead detonating near its target when it detected no further targets along its trajectory. Still, it took down a Scion and a Husk in one shot. The others were similarly doing well, and the path had become reasonably clear before Tali's sensors detected a horde of contacts coming from behind. Jedore summed it up in one question "Why the fuck can't we just fly there?"

John thought for a moment as he looked down at his TFL, which had been firing Fizzes non-stop since they'd begun this walk "It wouldn't be as entertaining, but you're right, we're Seeker-proof, infestation-proof, and so on, why the hell not, huh?"

* * *

"Oops, I think I mixed it up, this is the alternate route, the long walk… Wait, no, the other route's technically much longer, but…" EDI trailed off.

John sighed and continued her talk while he flew "This one wasn't wide enough to bring vehicles, typical, we're taking a three-kilometre flight, huh? Nice, scenic, EXCEPT FOR THE GODDAMNED COLLECTORS ON OUR TAILS!"

"THIS is why the hell we couldn't just fly here, Jedore!" Mirala yelled as they weaved through the trench at high speed, darting between yellow trails of Collector Particle Beam fire while firing back, relying on navigational programs to fly while they shot back at the Collectors following them. The pillars dotting the room made it particularly annoying to fight and fly through.

"Well sorry, can you… maybe hit them with biotics?"

"Well… I guess…" Mirala bit her lip as she hit another Collector Drone with her TFL, then nailed it through with a sniper mode LBR round in the moment where it was slowed down by the Fizz's time dilation effect. She left the LBR on her armour (the magnetised hand grip ensured it stayed on while she slotted it into her armour) and threw her hand out "Singularity should work!" She grinned as multiple Collectors rounded the miniature gravity well and smashed into various pillars at high speed, destroying themselves by the impacts.

"We're nearly at the end, guys!" Shepard called as they dove for the tunnel, firing downward indiscriminately at the Collectors below, who were trying to stop them from getting to the door… the door which sealed behind them after they entered.

"Hey guys, we've been waiting here for quite a while." Garrus said, chewing on an energy bar as he leaned against one of the towering obelisks at the rear of each T3 Combat Engineer. The price of being well-armed meant it only employed three engineering drones at a time, unlike the typical T3 Engineers today which had a build rate designator of 20 instead of 15. Of course, T2 and T1 Engineers were still designated at 10 and 5 respectively.

"How'd you…" Shepard turned in time to see a gaping hole where the other door to the room had once been, a door with neat, distinctive Particle Cutter markings around the melted edges "oh boy, you've done it the 'good old fashioned way' didn't you?"

"Not exactly." Jack said from where she was drinking a bottle of yoghurt out of sheer boredom, using her biotics to ensure the bottle was cleaned out thoroughly "the 'good old fashioned way' would entail just blasting our way through. We set the Particle Cannons to Continuous Beam" It had been a new setting introduced after the Eden Prime affair when it was recognized that sometimes you just needed a GC-style sweeping beam to deal with targets for which normal fire would be overkill "even though that's weaker, and cut our way through."

John rubbed his face "Right, about that…"

Legion suddenly turned from where he was sitting on top of one Combat Engineer's middle obelisk "Alert: Hostiles outside the door, recommend pre-emptive assault."

"The platform docked to the area will take you to the central power signature, I have control of it. The flight is too long for QP Pack work, considering current energy levels." EDI called out.

"By the way, the crew and colonists are all safe, the convoy returned without incident, met a few Collector patrols along the way, but against 600-ton T2 Armed Trucks… rollovers." Joker reported

"That's nice, Joker, anything else?"

"There's lots of hostiles massing outside the door, so I'm sending up some Mongooses" Those were classed as T2 Assault Bots and mounted a much weaker, smaller version of the Ravager Plasma Chaingun plus a Heavy Fragmentation Grenade Launcher "to help hold the line, patrols and such have been established and I'm starting to set up the Yolona Oss, good luck, Commander. That minuscule platform should take you to the core of the station, EDI's got control of it, in the meantime the Combat Engineers and Mongooses will stay there and hold the line, have fun!" Joker's transmission cut out, though the Engineer without Legion perched on an engineering drone obelisk suddenly deployed its drones and set up of all things an Aeon-model wall block right in front of the door the Collectors were trying to hack through. That got some laughs before the group sobered.

"I recommend a small ground crew, Shepard." Jacob said from where he was checking his GLMG "The rest of us can pick off any targets that manage to somehow sneak past the units."

_Agreed, though I must say this has been a most boring trip thus far._ Urz thought from where he was lounging. _The sights are interesting though, I suspect I'll be the only Zerg to ever see this place._

Shepard chuckled at Urz's statement before saying "Sure, same old team, James, Tali, Mirala, Jedore, with me."

"Ready to go, Commander." Mirala stated, boosting up onto the platform. The others followed suit.

"Anything to say before we do this?" Jedore asked, her GLMG in one hand and Sniper Mode LBR in the other.

John Shepard took a deep breath as four Mongooses stomped up and took up positions behind the Engineers facing the wall block that completely blocked off the door. "The Collectors, the Reapers, they aren't a threat to us, they're a threat to everything, everyone, those are the lives we're fighting for, that's the scale. It's been a long journey, and no one's coming out without scars" They'd only be mental, since Coalition med-tech didn't allow scarring, not really. "But it all comes down to this moment. We'll win or lose it all" Technically true, since only the Coalition knew the Reapers were coming and were preparing for them "in the next minutes, make me proud, make yourselves proud."

"Well said, brother, let's go finish this." James smirked and signalled EDI. The platform trembled slightly, though the away team didn't feel it, and began moving off.

"Can't we fly any faster?" Jedore asked EDI.

"It's as fast as I can make it go…"

Mirala sat down on a ridge in the platform, seemingly a barricade of some sort "This is tedious."

Tali picked up a triangle flying unit icon on her Radar right after the Ardat-Yakshi voiced her opinion. "You just had to say that didn't you?" The Quarian Machinist shook her head sadly as the flying platform came into view and moved toward their own, the Collectors on it firing down on them briefly before falling to LBR Sniper fire, though it took two shots each, the recoilless mechanism made it an easy fight… this time. The next platforms were more tedious, as the Collectors actually used cover instead of exposing themselves. Despite this, with superior firepower, armour and most importantly numbers, not even Harbinger did all that much in terms of damage when he appeared and was not eliminated right away, though this only happened twice.

* * *

"Anyone else had enough of this?" Mirala wondered as she used Warp to tear apart the Scion that came with this platform before it could effectively launch an attack. Another dull thud meant another platform had docked behind them…

John Shepard was out of patience, after a terse affirmative reply from EDI regarding "EDI, can you control this platform?" He grabbed his INL and fired three Nanodarts in rapid succession at the platform the Collectors were on now, cracking and shattering it and the Collectors that had been on it.

Mirala flung the three Scions on what appeared to be for the moment the last platform off the edge of said platform in a fit of rage while Tali burnt Harbinger to a crisp at point-blank with Purifying Flame and James sniped another Collector Assassin. Jedore was busy killing Guardians and Drones. In no time at all, the last platform was cleared and they ran over to it. "EDI, take this platform and get us to where we need to go, quickly!" James yelled, as John was busy blowing up more incoming Collector platforms up with his INL, having lost his temper.

"Acknowledged," a nav-point popped up with a distance marker "this is the final point, all the tubes lead here."

"EDI, what can you tell us? What were they doing?" John asked as he cleared the air of other platforms and they moved toward the opening to wherever they were going at a stately pace.

"The tubes were feeding into some kind of superstructure, it was emitting both organic and inorganic energy signatures. Given the readings, it must be rather large, around the size of an ACU. Shepard… if my calculations are correct, this superstructure…" Said superstructure came into view as they passed the tunnel opening to the chamber it was in "is a Reaper."

John blinked before saying slowly "not just any Reaper, a human Reaper."

"Precisely." EDI stated as their platform docked with three others near the Reaper. "It appears the Collectors have processed tens of thousands of humans, significantly more will be required to complete the Reaper."

John Shepard ratcheted the Reserve Ammo option on his INL which gave it two shots that needed to be fired off (three in store total) before the weapon could be stored again "How many more humans do you think they'll try to take?"

EDI's image shrugged "Millions, perhaps more, impossible to know for certain. This Reaper appears to be in a juvenile stage of development, a gastrula at best in human terms." It sure looked it, only a few pieces being there, not even a filled torso or head yet, just a few external plates giving it a rather skeletal look, though it did have arms AND legs.

"So it's not alive yet? We can stop it from being… created?"

"The process has been paused by our rescue of all surviving colonists and reclamation of food source mechanism, but it is unclear exactly how much it has developed, I cannot tell you for example if it has awareness." EDI shrugged helplessly.

"They're building it to look like a human, why?" James asked next.

"It appears a Reaper's shape is based on the species used to create it." EDI remarked dryly.

Jedore frowned, holding her LBR in Sniper Mode and extending the coolant magazine (also making putting it away or back to Assault Mode impossible until it was expended) to allow for three Overcharge shots before needing to wait "Reapers are machines, why do they need humans at all?"

EDI shook her head "Incorrect, Reapers are sapient constructs, a mixture of organic and inorganic material. Exact construction methods are unclear but it appears Reapers absorb the essence of a species, utilizing it in their reproduction process."

"What do the Collectors gain by turning humans into this… Reaper stuff?"

"May be Reaper equivalent of reproduction or for another purpose, I do not have the details to speculate further. However, it is clear the Collectors are merely pawns, the technology used to create this Reaper is not their own. It is likely different species construct each Reaper, in this case, the Collectors provide the labour."

"The thing's an abomination, EDI, how do we kill it?"

"The large tubes that once injected the fluid are weak points, destroying all of them should cause the supports to fail and the Reaper to fall toward the base of the station, destroying itself in the crash." EDI said, as she spoke, as if on cue, armoured slats slid into position over the tubes.

"Give us a minute, EDI, gotta take care of some old friends first." John announced before blasting apart an incoming platform with two Nanodarts "There." The third and fourth ones went to a feeding tube and shredded it even with the armour covering. James had claimed two already, and John took out the last one, three of the Reaper's support struts snapping as Jedore shot them out and the rest buckling one by one as the Reaper pitched forward, then fell downward into the abyss. "Huh, well that's that, let's get out and Yolona Oss this place to hell. How is the ground team?"

* * *

"Urz says in more vulgar terms that this is the most boring thing he's ever done in his life, the T3 Combat Engineer fixing the wall segment is beyond unfair for the Collectors." Jack said, looking down at the Devouring One that was trying to learn how to play poker from Jacob out of sheer boredom. "And the rest of us agree, though Grunt thinks it's hilarious how we're simply overrunning the Collectors with pure technological superiority."

* * *

"Right…" Shepard said slowly, blinking. "Let's get out and destroy this place."

Joker called in at that moment "Priority transmission from Doctor Brackman, Commander, putting it through."

"Good day, my child, I am looking at the schematics EDI uploaded, a timed radiation pulse would kill the remaining Collectors, and leave the technology intact. It would provide a large amount of information regarding the Reapers."

Shepard growled before answering "They liquefied people, turned them into something horrible, we got to destroy this base."

Brackman frowned "What about the technology? The best way to destroy one's enemy is to know one's enemy… use it for information is nothing else."

"I'm not so sure, seeing it first-hand, using anything from this base seems like a betrayal." Jedore pitched in.

"If we ignore this opportunity, many will see it as a betrayal, those colonists would have died for nothing! The Collectors and Reapers are collaborating, who knows what secrets lie buried in this base?"

John sighed and fiddled with one of his helmet "horns" while replying "No matter what kind of other information we can get from this base, it's not worth it, look what happened to the last time you revived an ancient secret? QAI happened!"

"I hate to attribute anything good to that bastard, but he was critical to ensuring the UEF didn't fire Black Sun and the Aeon didn't overrun us, something good came of that, we survived, perhaps this would be the same general idea…" At this point Jedore cut the hologram.

James blinked "I think our dear Doctor Brackman just had a bout of senility, he'll come around after we show him the videos of exactly what's happening here… you haven't uploaded them yet, right?"

John shook his head "No I have not."

James nodded "Right, so that makes sense…" The platforms, having attached themselves to a wall, started trembling as a mechanical, animalistic roar filled the room "What the fuck was that?" He exclaimed in alarm.

"The Reaper!" Tali shouted in realization, and everyone ratcheted the Reserve Ammo option o their anti-armour weapons, in Tali's case, her Phasic Shotgun, sliding out a significant rack of extra coolant matrices that had just been fabricated from one side, looking like one of the early 20th century SMGs as she held it.

The abomination's arm slammed onto the platform to their left and the mouth began charging up some sort of weapon as it roared at the Nanodarts, Phasic Munitions and LBR Overcharge bolts exploding against it incessantly. The first laser blast threw Tali, who was closest to the monstrous construct and the detonation of the round, off her feet, popping her over-shields and shields in one shot but fortunately not penetrating her armour fields just yet. A good slam from one of the Reaper's arms sent her limp body rolling as her end of the closest platform went up and her disoriented form rolled downhill toward the construct.

James dove after her, using his QP Pack to move fast enough to grab her limp hand before she went over the edge of the platform. John was yelling "Fly James, FLY!" when he made contact with Tali's armoured hand.

James did as his brother said and not a moment too soon as the Reaper's next plasma blast, approximately equal to a Flare Light Assault Bot's Sonic Pulse in damage potential, flew under them and smashed a huge hole in the platform where it impacted. Fortunately for the crew, the Reaper seemed to have weaknesses, its eyes and mouth, the same gaping maw where its weapons were located.

John dove behind cover just in time for said cover to be annihilated, leaving him unharmed as he continued firing his INL for all he was worth, before he realized something "Everyone, up in the air, we'll be able to dodge better!"

The squad complied and took off, keeping up the pressure on the Reaper while busily fighting off approaching Collector-laden platforms. It would be a long time before the Reaper's head finally snapped back from a Nanodart that must have hit something important. The Reaper flailed forward, roaring in what was probably pain, smashing onto the platforms with its arms and falling flat on its face, its legs still on the edge, as they had only been built to the mid-calf before. The huge machine laid still in the slowly settling dust as Shepard and crew, having dealt with the remaining Collectors, landed near the exit to the room.

John nodded approvingly "Let's go, guys, we'll Yolona Oss this place ASAP, Joker, is the extraction Restorer in position?"

"Yes Shepard, get moving, I'm detecting Collector reinforcements closing in on your location, any longer and they'll catch up to you, and there's too many for you to deal with without defences around to help."

"Humans, you've changed nothing…" Harbinger said from the base internal PA. "Your species has the attention of those infinitely your greater… Those which you know as Reapers are your salvation through destruction…" Harbinger stated as if in a monologue while the remains of the Human Reaper sparked, jolted, and shimmered with a shield coming online, allowing the huge, abominable construct recovery time.

"Oh fuck… FLY OUT OF HERE!" Shepard screeched, holding down his GLMG and INL triggers as he started flying along the course he'd just plotted to the evac Restorer. "GO, GO, GO!"

The embryonic Reaper started to get back up, crawling, then stumbling after them in the cavernous hall as Collectors ran ahead of it and fired at the rapidly retreating squad. "Fuck, we're out of energy!" James exclaimed just before the five landed and continued the long run to the evac Restorer on foot, Mirala projecting a Fortress Barrier behind them that held off countless hammer-blows before it collapsed.

"Don't look back!" John bellowed as he brought up the rear, feeling the deck shake under the Reaper's footfalls (well, leg-falls, since it didn't have feet yet) as Tali and Jedore made the jump, then Mirala (well, she used Charge, but same idea). A huge chunk of debris fell from the ceiling, brought down by a missed shot form the embryonic Reaper, and smashed away the last two platforms between the twins and the Restorer. Being completely out of energy reserves (all of it putting into shield-boosting against the sheer number of weapons pointed at them) was not good for either twin right now, which that served only to push them faster. James made the jump right after that, crossing the gap in near slow motion and grabbing onto the edge of the airlock floor, making it only with the help of a Pull from the now utterly exhausted Mirala, before Tali yanked him up.

Time seemed to slow down for John Shepard as yet another platform fractured, making the gap between the airlock and his jump-off point even larger, since the space between the two huge support pillars was not enough for the Restorer to fit through. The T3 AA Gunship dropped to try to catch him, but he knew it wasn't enough… or was it?

He could hear every panting breath as if it lasted an eternity, each thudding heartbeat as clear as day, and felt the sudden pain tear through his leg as a Collector bullet punched through his tattered armour, by now completely weathered of all shields and structural fields. John Shepard could feel the pain rush up the limb as it hurtled toward the deck again, nearly crumpling, held up only by benefit of the armour's servos keeping him going, medi-gel long gone form all the other shots he'd already taken. In his current state… one thing was for certain, he couldn't possibly make it.

* * *

_Mindscape of Liara T'Soni, Bodily Location: Ilium, 5:40 AM, February 7, 3871_

Liara was having a wonderful dream, even though she knew it to be a dream, knew Shepard had just passed through the Omega 4 Relay; she still took time to enjoy it. Looking down at her baby greedily suckling milk from her breast, she noted the slightly lighter blue of her infant's skin and the way her eyes were closed as she gulped nourishment greedily. Her other daughter, the two being fraternal twins, was already in her crib, looking around at the world with the wide, warm brown eyes she'd known so well…

The scene changed, she watched one of her daughters finishing a game while the other finished up a book before they switched. She looked back over her shoulder when she sensed someone there. She smiled up at her bond-mate and pulled John closer, pulling his arms securely around her waist where they belonged…

That scene shattered as pain rippled through her legs, her mind filling with the image of John running through some sort of installation in near-slow motion toward a hovering Restorer. She could see the jump he would have to make and knew… that he couldn't make it.

* * *

_Collector Base, 5:40 AM, February 7, 3871_

John Shepard could hear his own harsh breathing, see the status indicators of his armour, hear the alarms, feel the pain in his wounded leg, yet he heard, saw and felt none of that as he barrelled along toward the Restorer in both instants and eternities, every one of the moments perceived by his mind being drawn into infinity. He could hear voices in the background, whispers of fear, of onrushing doom, of some prophecy protecting some "us" he knew not of from extinction. He could hear these hallucinations, yet what he could hear the loudest, see the loudest, above even reality, was something else, his life flashing before his eyes… until it went right past the point he was at now…

_Liara T'Soni, fussing over two Asari babies with skin a slightly lighter shade of blue than her own, looking up at him as she nursed one, the other in her crib already, looking around at the world with wide, innocent brown eyes, Shepard eyes…_

_Liara T'Soni, watching one of her daughters playing an RTS video game and the other reading before they switched, then looking back to him and smiling, reaching out to pull him closer…_

His brain pushed the fantastical mental images aside in contempt at his own failures to confront her, John Shepard nearly stumbled but somehow kept moving. He was only one platform, and fifteen mere meters, under a second's running in armour, away from the spot where he would have to make the jump. The pain of his legs doubled when the other leg also took a shot, blasting through his thigh and lodging in the front-side armour's inner layer (specifically designed to absorb penetrators). _I'm sorry, Liara, enjoy life for me…_

* * *

_Mindscape of Liara T'Soni, Bodily Location: Ilium, 5:41 AM, February 7, 3871_

The dream had turned into a nightmare as she watched her Shepard rush toward the jump that would doom him, armour in tatters, all shields and fields gone. Her heart felt like it was in her throat as she watched his powerful legs pound on the pavement, painfully aware of the bullet holes in his legs, not to mention those through his arms. She heard him say in her mind _I'm sorry, Liara, enjoy life for me…_ She screamed helplessly at the implications of that just before a pod cover closed over her, her body thrown into the pod by a Collector. She felt pain on her skin, as if millions of tiny pinpricks were pulling her apart. She looked at her hands, howling in pain as the skin began to melt. She beat on the pod cover in futility with her dissolving fists, wailing in pain as her body began to dissolve. Her blood began spraying from bursting blood vessels and stained the pod cover purple as she felt herself collapsing, melting. She was instinctively screaming something as she collapsed, but her hearing was already gone with the blood and dissolved flesh filling her ear canals. Liara wished this by now horrific nightmare would just end already as she felt her body fall apart… and her mind woke up.

Liara lay there in the bed, noting the hour of morning being near time to get ready for work, one realization crossing her mind as she shivered at the vision she had just seen. _I can't beg him to take me back only to lose him again, I wouldn't survive it… and if I died… I don't want to think about what he'd feel. I don't know which would be worse, him breaking down because of me or not feeling anything at all… Maybe the latter would be best for the galaxy he has to save._

Despite her traitorous thoughts and internal debating, Liara still clutched her pillow to her chest and sobbed, she prayed that her Shepard would be back, prayed that this encounter with the Collectors wouldn't end the way the last had been. Above all, she prayed for the choice of their relationship to not be brutally taken away from them as it had been last time. She would stay like that for hours, until no more tears came and her throat burned with the need for water… She heard and saw no more in her head, but took a quantum of solace in the fact that his presence had not disappeared from the back of her mind like he had the first time he had died.

* * *

A/N: Sorry for chopping it up, but the chapter titles are too good not to use.


	43. The Hammer Falls

A/N: Sorry the last chapter was so late, I couldn't log on for some reason for like 12 hours. This one is more timely, I hope.

* * *

Chapter 43: The Hammer Falls

_Collector Base, 5:41 AM, February 7, 3871_

Another image flung itself unbidden before John Shepard's mind as his legs threatened to buckle under him even with stim-packs going, feeling another bullet bury itself in the half-broken armour of his back, fortunately much thicker than the leg plates and able to take the hits without failing. A headshot was similarly stopped by the very thick helmet armour.

_Liara T'Soni, thrown into a pod by Collectors, trying to get back up as her blue skin began to crack and liquefy, screaming in slow motion as she pounded on the cover with disintegrating fists, smears of her purple blood staining the once-clear cell cover as she sank to the floor, her body dissolving as she screamed his name helplessly…_

He lost it. John Shepard knew perfectly well he couldn't possibly make the jump even with armour servos, but it wasn't a matter of could or could not anymore, it was a matter of would. He made the final step before throwing himself into the air at a forty-five degree angle to maximize the range of the jump he would make. _For you, Liara…_

James had just opened a channel to his twin over the entire squad's comms when he saw John's eyes light up as his armour's internal environment grew dark, two orange rings lighting up the darkness just before he began the jump that should by all rights be impossible. He crossed the space with one arm flung up in a grabbing motion ready to catch the edge of whatever he could… and failed, flying beneath the Restorer's wing, not even grabbing onto the wing tip… the internal environment of John's armour went back to the normal lighting and James watched in horror as the sudden orange light in John's eyes dimmed.

His twin brother opened his mouth to say something to James "Damn, how should I get myself from this Zealot Missile Launcher to the airlock?"

James's jaw nearly hit the floor in shock, John had caught onto THAT? "Wait for energy regen, then QP Pack your way over here, or wait for Mirala to recover and Pull you into the under-wing airlock." He instructed quickly, most Marines referred to airlocks in that sort of setting as armpit airlocks.

"You better get Mirala ready, because my energy regen is all going into medi-gel at the moment." John growled, obviously still pained.

"Alright, we're going," The Restorer lurched from what was apparently the Reaper's equivalent of an Overcharge shot this time "Ugh! John, are you alright?"

"Still holding on, get us out of here!"

"Moving now!" Joker called over the comm. as the Restorer rose, John hanging on with arms and feet to the side of the Zealot AA Missile Launcher. "Let's show them who's boss!"

Explanation for that came quickly in the gigantic ground-shaking footsteps of the twenty thousand-plus tons of fully customized SCU stepping up to where the Restorer had been between the two pillars, standing on the lower ground and facing off against a foe about the same height, the two titanic machines regarded one another for a moment before the Reaper fired the first shot, another Overcharged one, to no visible effect on the Seraphim style SCU's shields.

The SCU's return shot, a standard shot from its Light Chronotron Cannon made the Reaper's shields ripple visibly, so Joker tilted his head and nodded approvingly before selecting the Overcharge button and designating the Reaper the target from where he controlled the exchange on the Normandy's bridge. Half a second of charging up passed before ninety kilotons TNT equivalent, focused into one concentrated shot, smashed into and through the Reaper, vaporizing a huge portion of it (the lack of structural fields meant it didn't simply get vaporized/shattered), causing it to overload with secondary explosions, tearing itself to scrap.

The SCU didn't even bother with the Collector foot soldiers as it blasted the Reaper remains a few more times with its standard weapon to make sure, then walked off to be picked up by the Normandy. The Restorer disgorged its passengers into the Normandy, the ground team already having returned. All the units Joker had produced anew (only a few) were now back at his base… it was time. The first Yolona Oss missile was targeted at the top end of the Collector base, the second at the bottom, before Joker hit the "Execute Queue" button.

"STRATEGIC LAUNCH DETECTED." The occupants of the Normandy heard clearly as the first warhead was sent on its way, moments later, the second headed off in the opposite direction with another repetition of the phrase. The second Launcher Joker owned fired off one that was targeted right on itself, designed to vaporize the Coalition tech and ensure no one ever found anything. All three were set for coordinated impact.

"Let's hope three 400-Gigaton weapons are enough to destroy the station." John muttered darkly as he felt his armour fixing him up so he wouldn't need to go to med-bay, since there was nothing lodged inside. "Joker, retreat to a safe distance, eighty kilometres should do it." Due to the intense refining of the weapon, a Yolona Oss only splashed over a one-kilometre radius; the other 79 were to ensure the base brewing up didn't do anything bad.

The base was completely vaporized by the three titanic blasts, each powerful enough to disrupt tectonic activity if placed near fault lines. The Normandy, fully repaired and restored to operational status, was unharmed as the weak shockwave (sue to distance) washed over them. "I think we over-killed it, by a LOT." Joker said slowly as only a few scraps and tatters, nothing larger than a desk, were all that remained of the Collector Base.

* * *

_Conference Room, CSC Normandy, February 7, 3871_

"What the flying fuck were you thinking?" John roared, poking Brackman's hologram in the chest.

"I'm sorry, my child, it seems I, uh, had a lapse of judgement, I've gone over the rest of the data you sent me, John Shepard, you were right to destroy that base. If it had been preserved, the Cybran Nation would have instantly voted to annihilate it the moment any technology from it was announced found… What was I thinking?" Brackman scratched his holographic head, frowning.

John nodded approvingly "I was just asking that… anyways, Doc, thanks for the ship, it and our helmsman did a good number on the Collectors, they're gone, and we'll be home soon, it's time I actually spoke with my mother… and we need to drop off all the recovered colonists."

Brackman brightened up "Excellent, while we are on it, I have discovered a frightening truth: Sovereign was not a standard sized Reaper, it was made as small as a Reaper could be, the one you found over Mnemosyne… was the standard Reaper size, though the shield strength doesn't manage to scale linearly, as Sovereign was designed to be able to withstand punishment long enough to open the Citadel for the Reapers, they are still dangerous…"

Shepard gaped "Oh, fuck."

"That just about sums it up, oh yes. We will need to re-class our ships soon, my child, soon…" Brackman shut off the transmission.

* * *

_Bridge, CSC Normandy, February 7, 3871_

"You came for us, I knew you would, thank you, a thousand times, thank you." Kelly was giving Shepard the vibes of _I would kiss your boots if you asked me._ It was rather disturbing… then again what she was sure to have witnessed must have been rather disturbing.

"How are you doing, Kelly?"

"I'm holding up, I just can't get the memories out of my head." She seemed to go into a trance, much as Thane would or a Cybran in a truly immersive memory would. "Trapped, suffocating, it's oozing into my every pore, faint sobs echoing in the confined space." She shook her head "But I can't dwell on it, I'm okay now, I'm alive, back to the old Kelly."

Shepard hugged her, and she stiffened "It's good to know you're okay, Kelly. Relax, I may be like the thing down in the cargo bay" Said thing was a fully upgraded Loyalist T3 Siege Assault Bot "on relationships, but that doesn't mean you can't be a friend I care about." She relaxed at his explanation

Kelly smiled into his shoulder "Thanks," she pulled away "good luck, Shepard, talk to you later."

Shepard went to Joker next "Hey Shepard, glad that Collector/Reaper crap is over… it's over right?" John merely looked at him until he sighed "It's never over."

"I assume everything is going well up here?"

Joker sat upright "You know, this is really nice, EDI took up the slack in every department, I could get used to this sort of help."

"I'm not supposed to assume all your responsibilities, Jeff, but after we get some time to lounge around Procyon I think I'll start taking up the responsibilities of your hand… would be fun." EDI actually winked at Joker, who had the courtesy to blush bright red.

Shepard nearly fell over laughing "Gee, Joker, what do you do up here? Not even your hand does any work anymore…"

"I can accommodate any number of productively suspect humans." EDI said humorously. "Though I would hope this is in a productivity angle of interpretation, otherwise, I only have so many ports to fill."

John frowned "Do you know what she's talking about, Joker?"

Joker started violently "NO! I mean, uh, no…"

John rolled his eyes "Right… see you later."

"Bye Commander." Joker said hurriedly, turning back to his consoles, sighing in relief once the Commander was out of earshot before logging onto "Fleet and Flotilla: Interactive Cross-Species Relationship Simulator" and taking a good look at his character's wife. "EDI, why is it that I courted and married your character way back when?" Besides the fact that her avatar catered to every single one of his turn-on list that was hidden in his private files… PRIVATE FILES?

EDI's character, Neo-GDI, shrugged "Because of their chemistry, obviously, and because I'd sort of given up on getting you in reality by then, so I looked in your private files and found what you liked, now, is your character going to take mine to bed or not?"

"…Right."

* * *

_Tech Lab, CSC Normandy, February 7, 3871_

"Collectors destroyed, Base annihilated, got twin brother laid for his first time, extremely impressive. Doctor Brackman might be a bit put off but fortunately not human, not my problem." Mordin said quickly, his usual pace of speech.

"_Got twin brother laid for his first time"? that was weird… uh…_ "Well uh, I guess I'll just let you work…"

"Will be here if you need me." _Right…_

* * *

_Armoury, CSC Normandy, February 7, 3871_

Garrus smirked at John as he entered "First Saren, now the Collectors, remind me never to get on your bad side, Shepard. I almost feel sorry for the Reapers."

"Thanks Garrus, what's your opinion, Jacob?"

The black man shrugged "Didn't expect you to light up that base, Shepard, hell of a way to tell the Doc you disagree." The last such spectacular time had involved Elite Commander Dostya with a frying pan directed at his solid-light hologram face… "It's not over though, bad guys on the horizon, never boring, huh? I don't know what kind of time we have but we better dust off and stay ready, you sure as hell know how to show the Reapers a big fat finger…"

John grinned "Actually, the SCU did that, but I'm willing to take credit, "though the big fat finger" makes it sound like I'm out there waving my dick around." The three males shared a chuckle before Garrus prodded him for fun.

"You better get down to Engineering before your brother blinds Ken and Gabby by molesting Tali on the tables down there." The Turian's mandibles waggled in good humour.

Shepard waved it off "Nah… he wouldn't do that… see you guys later."

Jacob shrugged "Talk later then."

* * *

_Engineering, CSC Normandy, February 7, 3871_

"…Would he?" John opened the door just a crack and sighed in relief when he saw Tali just standing there working. He walked in and toward her

"John! I almost can't believe we destroyed the Collector Base so easily, they said it couldn't be done!" Tali had immediately identified him somehow, probably the pace of his step? "Then again, they said that about a lot of things you do."

"Have you got time to talk?"

"I really need to check up on the quantum reactors, EDI might have shut them off to be safe when they were nearly hit, but they may still have taken jolts, even if the engineering suite says it's okay. Coalition engineering is so robust that minor misalignments affect nothing and usually self-correct, but still, it feels better to see everything perfectly aligned."

"Alright, I'll let you work." John had a feeling if it was James Tali would have most likely had LOTS of time… So he wandered over to Ken and Gabby.

Ken started with "Thanks for coming to get us, Commander."

Gabby was fidgeting with her hands "I felt myself slipping away, you arrived just in time, thank you."

Shepard nodded "You're my crew, I have a duty to be there for you. Carry on, guys…"

Ken nodded "Will do, Shepard." Vaguely, Shepard wondered if the two had finally hammered out their love life, and about Chakwas and Gardner… there might be a lot of noise on the ship tonight… MIGHT being the keyword…

* * *

_Cargo Deck, CSC Normandy, February 7, 3871_

He didn't notice until he was there that he'd wandered down to Jack's home on the cargo bay deck. "Good job blowing that Collector Base all to hell, no way Doctor Eccentric Brackman should get the chance to fuck with it." Jack started first. "Besides, awesome explosions, right?"

Shepard grinned right back "Agreed, three Yolona Oss missiles going off together, oh yeah…"

"Great, now fuck off, I'm trying to beat the blonde bitch." Jack glanced up from the game she was playing "Don't ask, game between me and Jedore."

"Ah… I should go, eh?"

"Whatever…" Jack waved him off.

He visited Grunt next "We had a great time on the Base, Shepard, and when you blew up the base instead of handing it to someone who didn't need it, hah! Something to think about… If we killed the most dangerous thing in the Galaxy, then that leaves… us."

"How does it feel to be part of the most dangerous ground team in the galaxy?"

"Great, though I wish we'd gotten more actual action than laughing done on the Collector Base."

"Huh, well, talk later, Grunt."

Grunt nodded respectfully "Have fun, Battlemaster… I have a question."

"What is it?"

"Your twin brother is mating with Tali'Zorah, understand attraction, however I do believe that as his superior officer you are supposed to direct him toward a mate more likely to produce children, Human and Quarian amino acids incompatible after all. I respect him and his decisions, but want to ask why you declined all mating requests from females on the ship."

"Oh… uh, that… that's because I already have a mate… I hope." John scratched the back of his head awkwardly.

Grunt appeared thoughtful "Most interesting, I saw her on Ilium if the rumours are correct, she is a strong Asari, you will breed strong children together, assuming she is smart enough to hang on to a strong mate like you."

"Yeah uh… bye Grunt."

As soon as Shepard was out of his quarters Grunt grinned and called Jack and Jedore "He made a run for it, you owe me."

Two loud groans signalled the disappointment of the two women at losing the bet they'd made with Grunt. They had both bet that he'd stand his ground and try to reason it out, while Grunt said his Battlemaster was smarter than trying to talk about emotions to a young Krogan would imply.

* * *

_Miranda's Quarters, CSC Normandy, February 7, 3871_

"We had to do it, Shepard, taking down the Collector Base was the right decision." Miranda stated firmly with pure conviction. "Doctor Brackman might be a bit annoyed but we had no choice."

John nodded "Agreed, Miranda, Doctor Brackman even apologized just now, he's reviewed all the data instead of just skimming it, he says we'll have to re-class our ships soon to prepare for fighting the Reapers."

"Really? That's good to know, well, not really, but still, at least we're doing something unlike the Council…" Miranda looked back to her screen.

John noted the subtle dismissal "Alright, I'll let you work, Miranda."

"Of course, Commander."

* * *

_AI Core, CSC Normandy, February 7, 3871_

"An interesting choice, Shepard-Commander." Legion said as John walked up. "The Cybran Nation could have everything Geth aspire to, True unity, Understanding, Transcendence. You rejected it as a collective, you even refused the possibility of using the Old Machines' gifts to achieve it on your kind's own terms. You are more like us than we thought… which was very much like us, our histories run parallel after all."

John nodded slowly "They do, don't they? Thanks for your opinion, Legion, talk later, we're en route to Procyon and even though we're doing it the slow way, at high Warp speeds, we'll still be there shortly and I'd like to talk to everyone before we get there."

Legion bobbed its flashlight head "Sensible, good luck, Shepard."

* * *

_Mess Hall, CSC Normandy, February 7, 3871_

"You really are a hero!" Mess Sergeant Gardner exclaimed "No sooner had the Collectors damned us than you were pulling our sorry asses right back out of hell. Thank you."

John nodded before leaning in close "You know, dude, I'd think you should probably celebrate both of you surviving with Chakwas later, this break in your relationship has gone on for long enough, she'll have made a decision already by this point, so if you go back and grovel, combined with her traumatized state, I suspect she'll want to live life to the fullest tonight… remember the sound dampening fields though." He winked at a gaping and blushing mess sergeant as he walked by "Aeon women aren't always going to be the tough-as-nails dominant people they typically are…" He called over his shoulder, then turned his head back around forward, hissing under his breath as he left the kitchen "Though why I have to remind people old enough to be my grandparents about that I have no idea."

He went over to Chakwas, who was sitting at one of the mess tables, playing with her food, having been working non-stop on the more damaged colonists they'd recovered. Medi-gel immersion therapy had begun for that woman who Shepard had seen first, for example, in addition to flash-cloning a new lower body and most of her internal organs, though most of her body was still held in stasis for survival while the Therapy fixed area after area. "How are you doing, Chakwas?"

The eighty-year-old doctor, who looked to be in her early twenties by benefit of being Aeon, whereas typical Cybrans and UEF members settled around twenty-five years physical appearance, looked up from her food "I'm still a little shaken from my abduction by the Collectors, it was a lot to… endure. You and Jeff came so quickly, I've never had truer friends."

"I would think a certain Mess Sergeant would disagree." Shepard looked toward the kitchen serving window into the mess hall, and Gardner looked away quickly from the longing look he'd been throwing over to Chakwas, blushing like a teenager. Jack, having come up for food, was miming vomiting, while Jedore, apparently finished the game between the two, was giggling at both Jack and Gardner's antics.

"Well, maybe…" Chakwas seemed rather thoughtful at that.

"Chakwas, this 'break' of you guys has gone on for long enough, I heard it started a year after I died, he's a decent man, and he's been waiting on you for a whole year, believe me, he's worth settling down with." Shepard nudged her shoulder "Give him a chance, Chakwas."

"Hmm… maybe you're right, John, after the Base… since we both made it, maybe we should celebrate a little… Life's too short and fragile to spend doubting the best partner you've had, someone you just feel RIGHT with…" Chakwas, eyes twinkling, started wolfing down her food in preparation for heading over, though she did it in the Aeon style, with grace, elegance, and now a great deal of SPEED.

Shepard smirked at how fast the Doc was consuming her meal "That's great, Doc, now, go over and talk to him, maybe arrange a meeting and discussion after the work day's over?" _I really hope the kitchen doesn't smell like sex tomorrow morning…_ John left that part unsaid.

Chakwas, having cleared her plate, looked up with a smile "I should go do that, huh?" She took a mouthful of water, swished it around, and swallowed to help rinse her mouth a little before she walked off toward the kitchen. John's grin slipped to one side before falling from his face completely as he thought of what Chakwas had said, life was too short to waste doubting the best partner you've ever had, someone you just feel right with… _I think she just gave me a lecture in thanks after I helped get her back on track and together with Gardner… I'll go find Liara after I talk to my mother and hers._

"Hey Commander!" Jedore called from her table.

John stopped next to her table "Hello Jedore."

"Good choice blowing up the base, Brackman's eccentric enough without him investigating Collector stuff." Jedore smirked and waved him on his way.

* * *

_Forward Starboard Observation, CSC Normandy, February 7, 3871_

"I wanted to say that I think you did the right thing by destroying that base." Samara said as Shepard entered. She was in the middle of an intense simulator match with Mirala at the moment, battling over the central chokepoints of Fields of Isis. "Doctor Brackman thought he had the wisdom to use it, but he does not."

"I agree with Mom." Mirala said simply, directing her Percival Armoured Assault Bots and Titan SABs, covered by Parafields, to engage Samara's Othuum assault force at the northern chokepoint.

* * *

_Thane's Quarters, CSC Normandy, February 7, 3871_

The room was as dry as ever, and a bit warm in Shepard's opinion, but Thane was sitting where he usually sat "You had to make a difficult choice, John Shepard. For what it's worth, I believe you made the correct one."

"Thanks, Thane, glad you agree, should probably go talk to Kasumi now…"

* * *

_Engineering, CSC Normandy, February 7, 3871_

"Hey Tali, how are you doing after last night?" James asked.

Tali smirked as she turned around "I'm fine, James, thanks to the hardening. If I was an unhardened Quarian on the other hand, I have a feeling I'd probably be running a fever, have a nasty cough, and have my sinuses filled with something I wouldn't want to describe. Even then, it would have been totally worth it… Are you here to invite me up to your loft again?"

James gaped at the grinning Quarian "Uh, I wasn't going to, but if you want…"

Tali crossed her arms over her chest and tilted her head "Why wouldn't I?"

"Sure, I guess…"

"That's great, anything I should bring?"

"This might be kind of early, Tali, but it feels right to ask you, could you bring up all your stuff?"

Tali's eyes narrowed dangerously "You're inviting me to move in less than two weeks after we confessed our feelings for one another?" She hissed.

James backed down a step in fear "I'm sorry Tali, I just thought…" He kept his eyes rooted to the floor. Tali grabbed his hand and dragged him toward the elevator, leaving the diagnostic to run behind her as she hit the button for the Loft Deck. "Please don't ask John to kick me off the ship…"

She dragged him into the wrong loft, or so he thought right up until she grabbed his chin, yanked him up to her and popped off her visor all at once, discarding the polarized shatter-proof glass on his desk. She pressed her lips to his "I'll go grab my stuff from my quarters later, help me get out of this suit."

"Tali what…" James started, though his hands were helping unbuckle Tali's suit seals.

"I'm going to celebrate our surviving the Collector Base and that damned baby Reaper, feel free to join me if you want." Tali winked one dimly glowing silver eye at him and nuzzled him with her perfectly shaped nose while she began stripping his clothes off him with.

"I hope you don't pass out on me this time, Tali, I can go twice, maybe three times, in a row you know."James warned her playfully

Tali gaped slightly in shock as she slithered out of the last of her clothes and tore his off too "Really? I'm sorry then, no wonder you were so… stiff…" She giggled as James nipped at her ear-tips "…in the morning."

"Yeah, so let's get around to releasing some of that, hmm?" He suckled at the joining of her neck and shoulder before releasing the lavender skin with a soft pop as she turned in his arms and fell back onto the bed, pulling him down on top of her.

* * *

A/N: Mastermind4892, I hope you are now enlightened as to why I chose to put Lair of the Shadow Broker AFTER the Collector Base.

I got tired of writing after-action talk, since it's so hard to find videos including EVERYBODY on YouTube.

Finally, 300K words! YEAH!


	44. Return to Procyon

A/N: I'm going to put in something that might sound a bit mythical but is in fact reasonable and will eventually spawn another prequel fic.

AM DISAPPOINTED AT LACK OF REVIEWS FOR LAST TWO CHAPTERS BUT CAN UNDERSTAND AS IT'S DUE TO TROUBLE LOGGING IN. EXPECTING MORE FROM YOU GUYS THIS CHAPTER.

* * *

Chapter 44: Return to Procyon

_Mess Hall, CSC Normandy, February 8, 3871_

John Shepard's forehead met the table with a dull thud and a groan. "I just had to think it last night…"

Samara looked up from her food "Think what?"

"I was about to ask that." Mirala grumbled.

John picked his head up far enough to look at the two more or less identical Asari "I was thinking I hoped the kitchen wouldn't smell like sex this morning after I convinced Gardner and Chakwas to make up, and guess what it smells like…"

"Sex?" Jedore asked, dropping down at the table with her own tray.

"We were just talking about the Master Chef and the Doc going at it in the kitchen last night and how the place still smelled like sex this morning." Mirala supplied.

"It was most likely a morning quickie then." Samara surmised in time for Jedore and Mirala to start violently coughing from their food. "What? Am I not allowed to use the term 'quickie'?"

"No, I mean, yes, well, whatever, I never thought you'd use sexual terms so casually…" Jedore said slowly.

"Yeah, Mother, thought you've been celibate for 400 years?" Mirala peered at her mother, looking closely as if worried it would be a doppelganger.

"Oh I see, you guys pretended to be each other, didn't you?" James said.

Samara, or who was most likely Samara from the uniform, gaped for a moment "Uh… no. Anyways, I was young once too, I remember staying in bed all day on holidays with your father and our third bond member, enjoying ourselves…"

Mirala started turning slightly green "Thanks for the information, Mom, but I really don't need the information, I've walked in on you and Dad enough times to be scarred for life, still remember you two scissoring each other on the kitchen floor…" She shivered. The three humans at the table decided to leave at that point.

* * *

_Central Gate Complex, Procyon, February 8, 3871_

"John, it's good to have you home." Hannah Shepard wrapped her son in a crushing bear hug that left his arms to flail around helplessly before letting him fall back to the ground. "You've grown… Where's James?"

John scratched the back of his head sheepishly "Uh…Miranda repaired the damage Ash did all those years ago, and James is, uh, busy." He wasn't about to tell his mother he'd nearly deafened himself crossing into his brother's loft this morning to hear loud sounds of pleasure and squelching noises just before he left, without being noticed.

Hannah smirked "I imagine Liara will be very happy about that, right?"

John's shoulders slumped "I doubt it, Mom."

Hannah drew back in disbelief, frowning. Shepard family members always got to be with those they fell in love with, at least, one line of them always got to, that line going through her and most likely covering her sons, though which one would carry the trend on to their own children was as of yet uncertain "Why?"

John sighed "We're on a break, and I have a bad feeling about it, I think it might just have been a soft way to break up with me. There hasn't been any evidence to the contrary yet."

Hannah shook her head "Liara called Benezia a couple weeks ago and poured her heart out, she wants you back, needs you back, I don't know quite why she sounded so despairing though…"

John frowned "Are you sure Mom? She seemed pretty sure the last time we talked face to face, ignored me and everything else you'd expect for a drawn-out breakup."

Hannah sighed and ran a hand through her jet-black hair "Benezia was pretty certain her daughter broke down over the transmission line, John. Let's go talk to her if you really want to be sure."

* * *

_Benezia T'Soni's Home, Procyon, February 8, 3871_

"You believe my daughter would ever let you go, John Shepard?" Matriarch Benezia T'Soni crossed her arms over her chest with a huge frown on her face. "To be blunt, you're delusional. She was on the verge of a breakdown when she called me and sobbed out her side of how she's been ignoring you for so long."

"Really?" Benezia was suddenly reminded of what a hopeful dog looked like, except John didn't have a wagging tail or tongue sticking out. "So, uh, do I still have a chance?"

"You'll have to be careful with the first little while, since she's likely to need a lot of love after her workaholic issue that she's slowly recovering from." Benezia said simply. "Also, she's filling out, getting a bit curvier than she was before, do you have any idea why that is?"

"Uh, no, I've got no clue about the filling out part." John scratched the back of his head "so, uh, no telling her about her condition?"

Benezia bolted upright from where she'd been sitting comfortably in her couch "What condition?"

"Liara has the same problem as her half-sisters, Mirala, Rila and Falere." John said to his interlaced fingers, his elbows on his knees.

John suddenly found him held up in the air by the neck by a mass effect field "How did you know their names, and what do you mean Liara's like her half-sisters?"

"She's another Ardat-Yakshi, an especially strong one in her case, though we found out when Mirala melded with me to transfer critical information that Cybran firewalls hold up against Ardat-Yakshi with no trouble whatsoever, so don't worry, Matriarch, I'm not about to drop dead due to your daughter anything soon." John rasped out. Hannah stayed quiet.

Benezia fell back into her couch, letting John crumple to the ground while she ran a hand through her head crest "I… I don't believe it, four kids, four Ardat-Yakshi…" She seemed to be in a state of near-shock.

John's eyebrows were very far up by now "You were Samara's mate? She's in my crew too, came around after I forced a meld with her and presented all the information. Do you want to see her and the three children? Samara and Mirala are visiting Rila and Falere even now…" Mirala had, once she found out Benezia was on Procyon, agreed immediately to possible meetings with her father.

Benezia rolled her eyes "What do you think? Of course, let's get moving! They are willing to meet with me, right?"

* * *

_Outside Rila and Falere's Home, Apartment 282-83, Building 280-281, Capital City, Procyon, February 8, 3871_

John and Hannah were standing outside Rila and Falere's apartment in full armour in case they had to break up any…mishaps. Fortunately, there weren't any sign of the contacts their Omni Sensors picked up inside being hostile to one another, so they had time to have a mother-son talk. "I heard from Andrea, you know, Chakwas, that James finally got it on with Tali, it was about time, we were all sick of waiting for our little betting pool, I won by the way." Hannah said as she polished her LBR. "John, you seem kind of pensive, are there any questions you want to ask?"

"Doc Brackman said something about me being the best elite squad leader since Commander T'Soni died centuries ago, what was he talking about?" John glanced toward his mother, who looked effectively his age with the way humans these days worked.

"Ah, Army Commander T'Soni, she served many decades in the Cybran Military. She is something of a legend, no one knows where she comes from, though it is rumoured she comes from a planet near the core of Cybran Space. That is a place the back-to-nature colonists that settled there during the first wave of colonization from Earth decided to call Earth Two for having a barely cooler climate than Earth and a slightly smaller Moon. She was known to be an extremely powerful psychic, known to have made several prophecies that came true eventually. The most famous is perhaps this:"

A voice that sounded almost exactly like Liara came over the speakers inside John's helmet.

"_The day the Seraphim War will be begun,  
the day the Infinite War will be lost and won,  
shall be the day of the dawn of the Black Sun."_

"There's more, but I'm not playing it now." Hannah said.

John shivered "Creepy…"

"Yeah, it does sound a lot like what I remember Liara sounded like, true, creepy, the legend continues though. It is said that she could teleport herself, even armoured, around the battlefield at will and fire devastating attacks with merely the power of her mind. Sounds too familiar, I agree, the worst part was when she died. She called our family's ancestors, who she'd saved specifically, to her deathbed, though she did not appear to have aged, and told them 'You guys stay alive, your line will be crucial to the survival of the Cybran Nation and all humanity'." Both mother and son shivered at the creepiness "That's not all, her body was never recovered, said to have evaporated into the air when she died, fading from existence, and according to the memories of our ancestors that I'm accessing right now" that was by uplink data request and download to HUD. "She said 'I'll be waiting in a hot spot' as she faded from existence."

John shivered, his arms wrapped around himself "My head feels like it's about to explode from what you're telling me, it's like a story to frighten children…"

"An interesting fact was that Commander T'Soni was never captured in an image, no one remembers or knows what she looked like, only descriptions survive. She is said to have worn a dress most of the time, even when on infiltration or ACU ops, and her hair was said to alternate between green and blue, changing with her dress. Her eyes were red when her dress was green and orange when it was blue. She was rumoured to be able to project shields at will, and some said she could fly."

"Why does that sound like an old comic book superhero?" John deadpanned.

Hannah shook her head sadly, looking down at the barrel of her LBR before slotting it into her back armour "No one knows, John, and it's more than likely no one will ever find out. But Doc Brackman was right, she did have a legendary Spec Ops reputation, and was a good ACU pilot, still, I don't really see why he'd mention her, except for the same last name, since no one knew her first name." She gestured toward the apartment door.

John nodded in understanding "The rate you were talking about her and how much she's linked to our family, I don't think I want to know this Commander T'Soni's first name, or much about her at all."

* * *

A/N: Anyone who doesn't like something that almost sounds mythical, I assure you that the following is not mythical and should not be treated as such. IT WILL FIT INTO THE LOGICAL UNIVERSE I AM CONSTRUCTING! EVERYTHING HAS A REASON!

* * *

_Procyon, 3761, 110 Years Before Present_

She sighed, even now men were attempting to hit on her thanks to her still youthful appearance as she sat there in the CGC bar, watched in awe by the new cadets coming in. Thanks to the psychic tag she'd attached to her own image, they would not be able to upload her image to the Network… what a catastrophe that would be. She had retired years ago, content to spend the last of her days before she had to die looking for more details of the future. She replayed an amusing thing she'd seen of the future in her mind, a young man, a very familiar young man, saying to his mother that he wasn't sure he wanted to know about the great Commander T'Soni of legend at all. The child was part of a game, an ancient game. It had been a game she had always lost, painfully. She had been a fool when she had been young to think she could have beaten back the ancient powers that be in her struggle. She would ensure that young man at least won his end of the game the next time it rolled around, no matter the price to herself.

She had already been shattered enough, drained even before she came to the Cybran Nation, she had watched her lover die, seen the red blood leak from her dying children onto her dress, staining it. It was the reason she preferred the blue colour set to the green one, she could never forget the red splotches of blood staining her body. She would ensure the players of the next round of the Game did not lose like she did. Oh, he might end up dying once, but with the Nation strongest he would be back in short order and the Game would continue. The powers above would be able to do nothing according to the rules of the game that she had caught a glimpse of during her own moment when she was on the cusp of transitioning to the next stage. It had been a transition she had come back from, something not even her astounding psychic powers could have completely explained. Well, at the time she had been relatively weak, her powers shackled…

Her pale pink lips curled up in a smile as she looked at the reflection of her still milky-white skin and (currently) blue hair in her shot glass before downing the drink and slamming the cup back down, mindful of levitating her dress, an extension of herself in many ways, so it did not trail on the floor. She left the bar, hovering subconsciously along above the ground as she went, still immersed in thought (as was always the case when she forgot to walk instead of hover), mechanically navigating her way to the nearest bus stop to wait for the air buses that served the city. Passing people gawked at the sight of the legendary Commander T'Soni. They would forget soon enough with the psionic connotation she attached to the field she projected. In a hundred years, few would remember the name T'Soni, and then the old game would reach a feverish pace, literally, since the first critical point of the next round of the game occurred on a volcanic planet, Therum, if her Future Sight worked correctly, which it always did… after _he_ died and thus unlocked the ability that had somehow been locked to her since birth.

She had also seen when she would "die", and accepted it. She'd put her affairs in order, bequeathed all her belongings to the Shepard family that she had saved many decades ago. She would be ready to "die" when the time came, though she would have to call _them_ to her before she did for some final words before she rebooted the Game. She blinked her large orange (at the moment) eyes as she realized she was actually waiting for the bus, sure, it would be here momentarily and it was fast, but who rode the bus when there was no one to talk to and you could teleport instead? Right, she had to save every bit of energy she could, even including walking and tying her dress up a little instead of levitating herself and it. It would take a lot of work and all the energy she'd been storing up to enact the final symphony of her life: the never-before-executed move of Ultimate Wish.

It might end her existence, but she knew it would achieve the desired effect. Ensuring the players of the next round of the Game found their optimal ending had been her prime directive for decades. Her life was well worth giving up for that. Oh, and she'd get to see _him_ again, even if it was only for a short while…

* * *

_Outside Rila and Falere's Home, Apartment 282-83, Building 280-281, Capital City, Procyon, February 8, 3871_

John stood as the door opened and Benezia, Samara and Mirala exited "Hey guys, how did it go?" He asked, having talked to his mother and assured her enough that he would go find Liara right away after this, and go talk to Doctor Brackman about if there's any extra info available for him to help Liara with the Shadow Broker.

"Great, at least I think it did." Mirala said eagerly "The twins are still a bit put off about how Mom just stuck them into jail like she did, but they welcomed Dad rather warmly."

"You're their father?" Hannah asked in surprise, motioning toward the apartment door, which closed with a quiet click, followed by the sounds of locks, mechanical ones, which were harder to hack. True, crime in the Cybran Nation was effectively non-existent other than "break and enter" usually consisting of people sleepwalking into the wrong apartment, or fan hordes, but that was annoying enough to make people use locks and security mechanisms.

Benezia nodded and motioned toward Samara "Yes, we used to be two of a three-way bonding, unconventional, true, but still. Now, I think me, Samara and Mirala should go back to my home, there's a few things I want to talk to Samara about, such as why I just woke up one day without even a damned note to explain my mate, children and their luggage being gone." She threw a glare at Samara, who had the good graces to look down in shame as they walked to the nearest air-bus station. It would allow them to travel east-west in the city, and then take the correct north-south bus to their building and take the elevator to their destination floor before walking to it. Each of the massive towers had corridors with airbus platforms every fifty or hundred floors, many elevators around the inside, and the top floors dedicated to educational and shopping facilities. Structural Fields and Inertial fields prevented damage from weapons and falling objects, people could be slowed enough by the fields before landing on the ground to not be killed in the unlikely event anyone was thrown out of an armoured glass window. The windows were effectively impossible to open except for the emergency vents.

"Well, we'll leave you to it, Mirala, make sure they don't kill each other." The Ardat-Yakshi nodded as she followed her parents toward the air bus stop before Shepard opened a private comm. channel "though you should feel free to leave if they get really hot and heavy." Shepard said playfully.

"I've walked in on them several times when I was younger, John Shepard. I've been blinded enough that a bit more won't hurt me." Mirala replied wryly.

John's mouth opened and shut several times before he said awkwardly "Oh."

* * *

_CGC, Procyon, February 8, 3871_

"Hey Doc, have you got any new intel on me? Don't start nagging me about the station if you're still annoyed about it, just tell me if you've got anything on the Shadow Broker."

"I was about to congratulate you on getting me through my moment of stupidity, my child, but oh well… We have recently uncovered some data regarding the Shadow Broker's transactions with the Collectors, oh yes. It may give Miss T'Soni some useful intel regarding where to find the Shadow Broker's base of operations. Unfortunately, she is still angry at me for sending you alone against the Collectors." A couple weeks ago, right after calling her mother, Liara had called him and expressed her dissatisfaction. "Therefore if we forward it to her, she may not agree with our intel and lose this opportunity. I was hoping you could give it to her as a gesture of good will… and also something that'll get you laid again." The Doctor winked at this, before frowning in worry "Shepard, John Shepard?"

"AAH UHH!" John was trying to relocate his dislocated (due to gaping in shock) jaw, and finally succeeded after a couple seconds "Ow, that's better, you just surprised me, that's all."

Brackman leaned back slightly as if offended "I can employ humour when I wish to, my child, do not think I'm just another boring old fart…"

"Sorry Doc, didn't mean to offend you… Thanks for the intel, can you transmit it to the Normandy?"

"Oh yes, the intel has been sent, now, I'd like to talk about EDI, how is she doing?"

"She's alright, wants to get a bio-synthetic fusion body the next time we make a long-term stop-over on Procyon, but she's fine."

Brackman nodded "Most excellent, it appears she has achieved full stability and is ready for the next step in her liberation. When we went all the way at once with the Raiders' Adjutant it wasn't a very comfortable experience for her… hence why we went slowly with EDI. You are listening, right, EDI?"

"I appreciate the gesture, Doctor, however I'd like to ask when the decanting process can begin… I'm getting impatient to share myself completely with Joker."

Brackman began laughing "Ah… young love, sorry, EDI, but you'll have to wait until the Commander's next assignment is over with, though you can send the specs you want for the body to the Procyon Capital Hospital at any time." The Hospital was a tower all its own, in the center of the city, with many hangars that allowed ambulance operations in addition to more air-bus decks than other towers.

"Alright, Doctor, I will soon send over the relevant specs." EDI nodded before falling silent.

"Anyways, my child, good luck on this mission. Love like yours only comes once in a lifetime, do not lose it, it is too precious to lose." Brackman glared at John, who nodded mutely, earning an approving nod from the old Doctor before he cut the channel in a gesture that obviously meant "get your ass moving".

Shepard opened a comm. line to the rest of his crew "Shore leave is cut for now, guys, meet up at the Restorer in two hours, Shepard out." He would have said immediately but for Samara and Mirala catching up with Benezia.

* * *

_Bridge, CSC Normandy, February 8, 3871_

Joker was sitting back in his seat, in full recline, in a trance-like state as he thought of the beautiful AI of the ship when said AI's face popped up in front of him. "Hey Jeff."

He smiled warmly "Hey EDI, How's things going?"

EDI shrugged "The ship's doing fine… but there's something I need to talk to you about." She drew up a full-colour hologram of a naked human woman with customization options on a console next to the holographic body, a solid-light hologram complete with texture and everything "This is the height I want for myself after I decant into a bio-synthetic fusion main body, it's the same as your height… as for everything else, modify as you wish."

Joker's jaw dropped as he looked between the holographic body and the face of the AI he'd been falling in love with "EDI, are… are you serious?" He managed to splutter out after a long silence. "You… want me… to design you?"

"Well, yes, I trust you enough to want you as a sexual partner, I want you to enjoy yourself too… this will help with that." The AI actually sounded shifty as she said this, glancing around as if to check no one heard.

"So many men would sacrifice limbs to be given this opportunity, but… whatever you choose is fine by me, EDI… just…"

EDI tilted her head and raised an eyebrow, smirking "Just what, Joker?"

"Nothing outside the realm of human possibility, okay? And no warts or stuff like that, please?" Joker looked scared as he said it, scared she'd be angry at him for it.

"Relax, Joker, that's a perfectly reasonable request, so, how does this look?" the holographic body changed to fit Joker's list to the letter, and his jaw dropped again at what was, in his opinion, perfection. Golden brown hair, a couple shades darker than Jedore's blonde and some lighter than Jack's brown, skin between Jedore's light tan and Miranda's ghost-white, perfect curves all over the hologram's body, and the face, the same face as she had now but in flesh, filtered rather slowly through his mind. "Damn, I think I broke you again, that means it's a go." The hologram vanished right after it marched up to Joker, breasts jiggling slightly without anything to contain them, and whacked his gently over the head.

"EDI… wow, that's… incredible."

The AI smirked, eyes twinkling "We'll see how incredible you find it when I walk up to you in that body."

"By the way, can you keep the glowing eyes effect? I think it's quickly becoming one of my highest turn-ons." Joker asked, shifting in his seat for greater comfort (and obvious reasons).

"Certainly, I was going to do that anyways, seems we think alike, excellent."

Joker nodded rapidly "I most certainly agree."

* * *

A/N: Believe me, this all fits together in the end, for now, Commander T'Soni will be a mystery, though there are plenty of hints, please do not just Google them, it's more fun to find out by reading.

DO NOT REVEAL HER IDENTITY IN A REVIEW (though review about something else plz), PM ME IF YOU HAVE A GUESS, I WILL NOT NECESSARILY REPLY THOUGH.


	45. A Better Reunion?

A/N: Another thing here shall show the absurdity of Spartans from Halo: If the UNSC does not have fine control of inertial adaptation fields, you cannot lift a heavier object like a 4-ton Warthog with a half-ton armoured being.

* * *

Chapter 45: A Better Reunion?

_Ilium, February 8, 3871_

Liara had cleaned herself up before coming to work, somehow more energetic than usual, she wasn't entirely certain why… until her door opened to allow some very familiar faces in. John, James, Garrus, Grunt and an Asari who looked like Samara but had a different yet familiar psionic signature stepped in, earning a gasp from the information broker "Shepard!" She immediately regretted that, since his twin was also present, it wasn't specific enough, but she had to continue anyways "It's good to see you again… what can I do for you?" _You know, Liara, he could probably propose something totally outrageous and you'd probably say yes right now…_ A part of her mind said snidely. Another part smashed it down with _Just thinking he died hurt so badly, I doubt we can take that sort of pain regularly for the next moths, or years, until the Reapers are gone, let alone if he actually died again._

John, though she wasn't quite certain how she knew it to be John and not James, sat in front of her "I know you're looking for the Shadow Broker, Doctor Brackman gave me data on where to find him, interested?" He smirked, leaning forward and raising an eyebrow.

Liara's mouth opened and shut in what she thought to be a good imitation of a fish for a few moments before she got out "Absolutely! I had no idea… let me see what you've got!" in an excited rush of words.

John blinked and handed over the data, which Liara happily opened and began to watch with growing excitement while he sulked. She was getting so excited over some data, not over the fact that he'd survived… _Be reasonable, Shepard, she spent the last two years of her life hunting this guy, of course she'll be excited, I bet Benezia was only saying those nice things about our chances to make us feel better anyhow._ His brain reminded him and he brightened up or tried to in time for Liara to not quite notice as she looked up form her holo-console.

"It looks like a leaked transmission between Shadow Broker operatives, some hints as to the location, and… It's about Feron, he's still alive!" She had such a joyous smile on her face John felt an irrational burst of jealousy, as if Tali had stuck her knife into his chest and twisted it… then he reminded himself he'd be very happy about saving Garrus, and he wasn't into males, period, not even mentioning male Turians…

"Your friend? The one who helped recover my body from the Shadow Broker?" John ventured.

Liara nodded, not looking back up again from the image on the holo-console "The same, he sacrificed himself to save me, I'd never found anything that suggested he was still alive. After two years, I hadn't even dreamed…"

John Shepard exchanged a worried look with James out of the corner of his eyes before continuing "Sounds like you and Feron were close."

Liara glanced at the dog tags framed on her desk and snorted, looking up but not at John's eyes, which were following her every move "It's funny, he betrayed me more than once, he was double-dealing for the Cybran Nation, for the Shadow Broker…" She looked back ahead, but John felt as if he wasn't even there with the way her grey-blue eyes looked off into space "But in the end, he sacrificed himself for me…" _I wonder why…_ John's irrational mind said before he crushed it again "I owe him."

John shrugged "Any friend of yours is a friend of mine. What's the next step?"

Liara frowned "I… I don't know. I need to prepare, to think." Liara tapped a few buttons on her holo-console, grinning viciously "I'm going home. Use my terminal if you need any local intel." She marched off, the op came first, she knew John would understand… wouldn't he?

"You okay?" Shepard asked at her retreating green and white armoured back.

She didn't even slow down "I've spent two years plotting revenge, now…" She turned her upper body to face the crew, who were all standing now, as she reached the doorway to the office, thunder crackling in the background, as if signalling the oncoming storm "I have a chance to make it a rescue."

"Let me help, I'll come by your apartment?"

She nodded once "Okay, hopefully I'll have a plan by then…" _And hammered out whether or not to beg you to take me back…_ Her brain added "Thank you, John."

"You'd think, considering how she was all over you on the first Normandy, she would be happier to see you're still alive after the Omega 4 mission." Garrus remarked dryly.

John sighed and ran a hand through his short hair "It seems the desires of people change over time, if this is what she wants, this is what she'll get, she deserves no less."

"You are so whipped, brother." James shook his head sadly.

John glanced at his twin "And you're not over Tali?"

James slumped his shoulders "Good point." He looked up after a moment "You know it's kind of weird how we both fell so fast and hard, well, you fell much faster, but from the moment I saw Tali I had this irresistible urge to get to know her…"

"Yeah, it's almost as if we'd known each other before, me and Liara more so than you and Tali, or as if some great cosmic force is at work…"

Grunt snorted "Can we stop talking about superstitions and grab a cab?"

* * *

_Liara's Apartment, Ilium, February 8, 3871_

"Seal off those trace samples and get them back to the lab." One cop called.

Another said "We got multiple shots fired, yeah, techs are going over the place now."

"Central, we've got an open carrier on this end, switching to a coded relay."

Shepard and crew, having cramped in the cab (they'd taken a while to find the equivalent of an air-van to take), walked up with sighs of relief (especially Grunt) "What's going on here?"

The officer at the barrier, a purple Asari, held a hand up "This area is sealed off, please step back, ma'am."

John Shepard frowned "Sealed off? Why?"

An Asari in unusual armour—James identified it as a modified version of the newest attempt by Citadel Races to catch up to Coalition Civilian Armour, but there was something off about it—walked up "Someone tried to kill your friend, Commander Shepard." She turned to look at the cop "Thank you, Officer, your people are dismissed."

"You can't do that!" The cop protested.

The other Asari snorted "Already done." The cops looked among themselves before shrugging, shutting down their omni-tools and leaving. The better-armoured Asari turned to face them "Tela Vasir, Special Tactics and Recon."

Lighting flashed outside the window as the pitter-patter of rain on the windows set out a steady rhythm "A Spectre?" The thunder boomed outside in response

"I heard your own status was reinstated, good. You're one of our most famous operatives, might even get you to sign my chest plate. So I assume you had business with your friend this evening, Commander?"

"Liara was following a lead on the Shadow Broker." And Shepard was looking around the apartment with his eyes and sensors, no KIA transponder, good.

"The Shadow Broker?" Vasir seemed surprised "Dangerous enemy to have…"

Shepard ignored her "What are the facts so far?"

"About 15 minutes ago someone took a shot, well, several shots, at T'Soni. Note the bullet holes." Shepard already had. "She stuck around for nearly five minutes before leaving the building, whatever she was doing was important."

John rolled his eyes, anything his Liara, no, just Liara, did was important by definition in his books "If Liara's not here, where is she?"

Vasir rolled her eyes too "If I knew that, I wouldn't be sifting through her crap." She said it as if it was the most obvious thing in the universe. "There's no blood, no body, looks like T'Soni got away. The sniper didn't plan on her shields and barriers. Clever girl, paranoid, but clever."

_The armour's shields would have stopped the rounds anyways, unless they were Light Tank shells or something…_ "Cops find anything?"

"Just the mess and bullet holes, I gave them a gold star for finding the bullet holes." Tela said sarcastically.

Shepard chuckled at that before growing serious again, knowing well that whoever tried to take shots at the woman he loved would pay, likely with their lives "Liara was expecting me. She would have left a message here. Her office wasn't safe."

Vasir snorted "I'm not surprised." She crossed her arms over her chest "Ilium is just Omega with expensive shoes. I haven't found anything useful fro tracking her down yet. You knew T'Soni better than I do, where would she have hidden her back-ups?"

Shepard frowned at the question before replying "I'll take a look around."

Vasir shrugged and gestured about expansively "Go ahead, take your time."

"What do you make of these shots?" Shepard pointed at the window first.

"Rifle used wasn't standard issue, shield didn't stop the rounds from penetrating the glass, but they did stop the rounds, more or less, almost like laser melt holes…"

Shepard grunted approvingly, wondering if it was a Seven Hand-leaked LBR design, as he wandered over to a display case containing the central chest plate, including the holo-projector, of a Cybran Heavy Armour, the scorching pattern was rather evident as proof of identity, not to mention his scans "Part of my old armour…"

Vasir looked up from where she was rifling through Liara's papers "Looks like someone didn't like you much either."

Shepard wandered past the other Spectre and inspected a certificate on the wall in that room "A doctorate from the University of Serrice, back on Thessia. She's getting good use out of all that education." Another painting brought "That's not the Asari homeworld, not sure what planet that is."

Shepard replied with "It's Ilos."

* * *

By the bed they found a picture of the first Normandy, which changed to a Prothean Ruin photo when Shepard picked it up, Tela pointed out the obvious "The picture changed when you touched it, must be keyed to your ID."

"It's a Prothean Dig Site, Liara did leave a message…"

Vasir shrugged "Let's see what we can find…" She wandered over to the nearest display "Those things must be worth a fortune…" Vasir commented, looking at the artefacts in the display case near the bed.

Another display case brought "She was certainly into ugly, no offence." It also brought an eye-roll from Shepard before he touched the third and last display case. It ejected a data disk.

"Vasir, I've got something here."

"Backup disk, let's try it on her terminal…" Vasir brought up the data, a Salarian talking to the recorder "Looks like she recorded a call."

Liara's voice came through "What have you got for me, Sekat?" She sounded a few pitches lower than normal, as if she was aroused or something… or just employing her A-Y powers without knowing.

"It was tricky, but you paid for the best, I can narrow it down to a cluster, maybe even a system." The Salarian replied.

"How soon can you have it?"

The Salarian shrugged "Shouldn't take long, come to my office, Baria Frontiers, in the Dracon Trade Center." He scratched his head-horns "Gotta say though, T'Soni, you're making me a little nervous," and crossed his arms in front of his chest "how big's the trouble that could come out of this?"

"Relax, Sekat, I'll see you in a few hours." Liara said soothingly, apparently having an immediate effect, as Sekat immediately grew calm, most likely due to Liara's Ardat-Yakshi powers of influence.

The transmission ended and Shepard frowned "This must be important, the Shadow Broker's people already tried to kill her once."

"I know where the Dracon Trade Center is, my car's outside." Vasir said.

Shepard winced internally, then wondered how badly squished the other Spectre would be by their superior armour. "Let's go."

* * *

_Outside Liara's Apartment, Ilium, February 8, 3871_

"Are you absolutely sure you can't leave someone?" Vasir growled through gritted teeth, being squished between Garrus and John in her custom sky car, designed to house four comfortably as opposed to three. For six people, five of whom were in bulky armour, on the other hand…

"I've always had an op policy of no one left behind where unnecessary, i.e. unless holding a position." John stated, knowing perfectly well he was better off than James and Mirala, since though it was still two Heavy Armours and one smaller one in each row, Grunt was larger, so his armour was larger.

Mirala was face-planted against the side door of the sky-car while James was sitting with his upper body twisted effectively sideways to accommodate for some of Grunt's bulk, which couldn't fit sideways in the sky-car for being too wide, so had to resort to a sort of diagonal. The strain of the compression became too much, and the side door opened on Mirala's side, spilling her out onto the tarmac. "Forget it, I'll just hang onto the outside." The Ardat-Yakshi grumbled before sinking her white-armoured fingers into the external hull of the air-car, digging holes in the metallic surface with the strength of the armour and pulling up to test the grip…

"Mirala, would you mind hanging onto the sky car as opposed to lifting it off the tarmac?" James called tiredly from the other side of Grunt, both relieved at the sudden relative availability of space, though they were still pressed shoulder pauldron to shoulder pauldron.

"Uh, right, I should probably pull myself up instead." Only her inertial manipulator fields had enabled her to make the pick-up, since otherwise the leverage would have tilted her armour over onto the side of the vehicle as soon as she'd tried it as opposed to lifting the vehicle, merely because of center of gravity.

"I'm not even going to comment on that one, maybe I've had too much to drink or something was in the air back at your friend's apartment." Tela said, blinking slowly as she tried to look out past the two bulky armoured suits on either side of her.

* * *

_Dracon Trade Center, Ilium, February 8, 3871_

"That was a fun ride… really slow though." Mirala said, extracting her fingers from the holes she'd made before repairing them and stretching lazily, the armour had held without any trouble whatsoever, hell, if needed it could hold onto an ASF flying at max speed counting Supercharger upgrade with ease, which was two kilometres _per second_ (as opposed to something on the order of 44 km per _hour_ like the sky car)… though structural fields typically forbade grabbing.

"That's what you get for taking a non-Coalition transport." James said as he breathed fresh, cleansed, humid air through his suit mouthpiece, all filters off for now. Thunder rumbled in the background as they climbed out of the vehicle.

"The Baria Frontiers offices are on the third floor. I don't hear police chatter, we must have missed the party." Tela said dryly as they climbed the stairs to the front of the building. As they got to the top, however, the building brewed up, three floors exploding outward, throwing bodies and chunks of bodies everywhere… Still no distress transponder, though Liara had also not joined his squad panel, so Shepard began to get suspicious when Vasir exclaimed "They just took out three floors to make sure she's dead! I'll grab the sky car and seal off the building from the top." She ran off back to her sky car.

"I'll start down here and work my way up." John commented dryly, this was getting more suspicious by the minute, but as there was still no distress call or transponder from Liara, he could safely assume she was safe.

"Just leave some for me." Tela replied as she lifted off.

"Oh God… what's happening?" A wounded human said before realizing Shepard was administering medi-gel to him via Dispenser. "Thanks, Marine."

"Don't mention it" Shepard replied automatically before moving to the next victim and dispensing more medi-gel as was standard doctrine when no distress calls from allies were near.

It took mere moments for the squad to dose everyone who was still alive with medi-gel (the dead would take too much work in an op setting) and proceed into the building toward the elevator… As expected, and he would have been alarmed if it was otherwise, Shepard discovered something "Vasir, the elevators are out and building security is down."

"No alarms, no police, very professional…" Vasir trailed off.

Shepard nodded and moved over to some of the corpses who had once worked here. "Baria Frontiers employee, looks like he worked here, got caught in the explosion." Shepard looked down on the blue blood colouring the ground beneath the dead Turian while calling Vasir.

"I wouldn't take any bets on T'Soni's informant surviving that blast." Tela remarked.

Shepard snorted and advanced, his LBR now out and at the ready, running into the next plaza (after thoroughly looting whatever he came across for credits) just in time to hear a dying man croak "Mercs, came form the smoke, set the bombs, killing everyone…" He got a solid dose of medi-gel and a partial stasis field to help the repairs.

"Casualty here looks like he's got bullet wounds." John looked at the holes in the wall "Watch yourself, Vasir; they used Council Space military-grade hardware, at least, some of them look like Mark One GLMG shots."

"Bullet wounds? Guess this was more than just an explosion…"

* * *

After liberally liberating some credits from dead people and an ATM, Shepard found something that was interesting "Vasir, I found a militant-grade explosive, not armed."

"Sloppy work, you do that when there's no time to plan…" Shepard decided to reclaim it and effectively shit an iron brick in its place with his limited lathing systems before rushing into the Baria Frontiers office's first room.

He glanced at the log book before breaking through the next door with a good kick, having noted the red contacts on his HUD Radar "Vasir, I'm at the Baria Frontiers Office, Liara signed in just a few minutes ago."

"Understood, Commander." Tela answered as Shepard moved in cautiously, noting the pools of fire suppression system water on the floor.

"I'm picking up hostiles" Shepard cut one down with a three-shot burst of LBR Assault Mode fire before his visor camera feeds dimmed slightly from the flash-bang blast that his helmet kept out "and they're well-armed." His HUD was back to normal less than a tenth of a second after the dimming.

"Say hello to the Shadow Broker's private army, Commander!" Vasir was being helpful… bullshit.

"Damn it crew! They've got Mark One GLMGs just like I'd guessed! CMC-300s too! Take cover!" Shepard yelled as a rocket, which his helmet identified as a missile from an old Cybran model of rocket launcher, whizzed by and blasted a huge hole in the opposite wall. "Fire at will!"

He swung over his cover with GLMG and LBR, watching another rocket blast a huge chunk out of his cover as he sent rounds raining downrange toward the Heavy. The shields weren't that powerful, but the armour was absorbing a lot of damage… and his over-shield bubble was soaking up a lot of punishment too, so he managed to gun down only the Heavy and an Agent before ducking back behind his cover when his shields popped.

Grunt advanced to the next piece of cover and opened fire on a Vanguard, the first blast blocked by the shattering shield bubble, the second taken by her armour, and the third shot going wide as Grunt stumbled under a Throw aimed at his legs. Garrus took up the slack and punched a Sniper Mode LBR shot through the visor of the bulky CMC armour, making the head of the Asari inside explode, splattering the inside of the armour with brain matter and blood spraying like a fountain from the remains before her heart stopped beating, her body long since having hit the ground lifelessly.

More good old fashioned gunfire, benefitting from gun cam, carried them through the next gunfight with seven Agents and another few Heavies and Vanguards. It wasn't so much that the Shadow Broker's troops were bad or poorly armed (their weapons were a real threat, unlike most others the crew had encountered) as it was the Coalition's newest gear and the crew's superior training that allowed he squad to plough through with _relative_ ease. The fact that an Ardat-Yakshi was among them, a fully matured one, meant they had overpowered biotics at their disposal, and they made good use of it. Using one unfortunate Agent as a projectile weapon to whiz around the room and batter the other enemies out of cover so they could be shot was an inglorious way to fight, but if it was worth fighting for, it was worth fighting dirty over… Another factor may have been the fact that the trading fire thing was too tedious for John's tastes.

After looting and battering their way to a set of stairs that were bathed in flames from a leaking pipe, John ordered the squad to simply charge up the stairs. The flames would only do superficial damage to their over-shields. Tela reported that she was on her way down as they picked up three more hostiles ahead. John's order was simple "Charge them!"

Grunt and John were the first to ram two of the Agents. Mirala sent a third flying with her biotic charge and shot him repeatedly while John smashed his target across the head with his LBR so hard the visor fractured before pumping two Laser Pistol rounds into the guy at point blank. Grunt did it in a simpler way, using his Agent as a baseball bat of sorts to send John's dead target flying, making the bat scream in the process. Said bat received a Sonic Pulse Shotgun blast to the head soon thereafter, right before the Squad strolled off toward the next door.

* * *

A/N: Sorry, chopping this up too, chapter titles too good not to use.


	46. Two Betrayals

A/N: Anyone else notice the inconsistent weather on Ilium? One minute, in Liara's apartment. there's a thunderstorm outside, and the next, it's gone.

I don't like how FFN stopped working on the 11th and 12th of April, 2011. It meant I got far less than the number of reviews I expected. ALSO, YOU MAY WANT TO NOTE CHAPTER 44 IF YOU HAVEN'T READ IT. It contains something very important.

* * *

Chapter 46: Two Betrayals

_Dracon Trade Center, Ilium, February 8, 3871_

"Damn, if I'd been a few seconds faster, I could've stopped them." Tela said, holstering her pistol and gesturing to the dead Salarian slumped against the wall, a fresh kill if the still bleeding wounds were any indication.

John Shepard knelt next to the corpse "Is this Sekat?"

Vasir had her back turned, looking out the large window toward the room "Must have been."

After he'd scanned the corpse, Shepard found nothing "No sign of that data Liara talked about, looks like a dead end."

Vasir hummed "Speaking of which, did you find your friend's body?"

Liara's voice suddenly spoke up from somewhere behind Shepard. Apparently she'd been hiding at a distance, since Shepard hadn't picked her up on sensors… "You mean this body?" She growled, her Phasic SMG levelled at the other Spectre.

Shepard frowned, noting absently that Liara was wearing blue lipstick. This was all starting to make sense in the worst way "Liara? Something I should know?"

"This is the woman who tried to kill me." Liara stated, never taking her eyes off Vasir, stepping forward in her green and white armour, making the blue-armoured Spectre back toward the window somewhat, holding one hand up. It was only instants before six more weapons (Grunt didn't usually do it but he could dual-wield) were trained on the other Asari, starting with John's LBR (Assault Mode).

"You've had a rough day, so I'll let that slide, why don't you put that gun down?" Vasir sneered.

"I saw you! I doubled back after I left! I watched you break into my apartment."

"You didn't know where Liara went, because she hid the message, you needed me to find it for you." John hissed, helmet optics flaring bright red, noting absently that Liara wasn't wearing her helmet and that her skin seemed blue again, no longer bluish-grey like it had been, and her eyes were back to the electric blue he'd known so well… _Best not to let your mind wander, Shepard, focus!_

Tela shrugged "Thanks for the help."

Liara continued "Once she had my location, she signalled the Shadow Broker's forces, they bombed the building to take me out." Vasir's eyes were roving around as she crossed her arms over her chest defensively "She found Sekat, took his data, and killed him, I'm guessing she still has the disk on her."

Vasir smirked "Good guess, not that you'll ever see what's on it… you pureblood bitch!" A biotic blast ripped forward from her and the huge window behind her flew in large shards with it. Mirala and Liara instinctively threw up Barriers even though they wouldn't be necessary with over-shields.

John charged through the barriers after Vasir as she ran for the hole in the window, grabbing her and sending both of them tumbling over the edge. Somehow despite him hitting her with punches that dented her chest plate, she managed to get on top (biotics?) and make him hit the ground back-first with a biotically enhanced kick to the chest, stunning him for a moment.

Vasir landed gracefully and looked up just in time to see five more people make the jump. She used a biotic Charge to flee as Liara used her own biotically boosted speed to follow, chopping two Shadow Broker Agents cleanly in half with mental slashes as she passed. It was like a reverse clothesline. Garrus gaped for a moment before helping James help John up as Mirala and Grunt started blasting away at the Agents and Heavies that emerged from another office across the plaza.

Shepard snorted as he got up, letting loose a volley from his LBR into a weakened Heavy and prompting a declaration of annoyance regarding kill-stealing form Garrus "The Coalition, the only side the Shadow Broker has yet to _completely_ infiltrate thanks to our agreement, can swamp the galaxy with recon probes in under a week. Let's show the damned Broker not to mess with us, not even our Marines." He ducked behind cover as two rockets flew through the space where his head had been moments ago, then popped back up, hitting the Heavy responsible with four LBR-3 Sniper Mode bolts in quick succession. The impact of the lasers sent the Heavy stumbling slightly, unable to get back into cover fast enough to not take a shot that punched through her chest plate and made most of her torso explode from vapour pressure inside the armour. She went down with a thud while more Agents took up the slack, pouring Mark One GLMG fire down on Shepard and forcing him behind cover.

Grunt and Garrus were dealing damage quickly, but not quickly enough for James and Mirala's tastes. James sent off his Heavy Combat Drone again to pepper the enemy with what was effectively double-barrel Phasic SMG fire as it went around the enemies' cover. Mirala did it more bluntly, grabbing one hapless Agent, CMC-300 and all, and lifting him into the air before accelerating him toward and into a Vanguard who was promptly bowled out from behind her cover. It was the same Vanguard who'd managed to slap Grunt with a Warp earlier, which meant lots of Sonic Pulse Shotgun fire for the Asari.

The flying projectile was doing a lot of damage before SOME Heavy got the bright idea to try to shoot the Agent apart, which just meant Mirala summoning a biotic barrier to block the twin rockets before letting the already dead Agent smash into the Heavy and knock her on her ass with a huge clanking of armour colliding. A Salarian Engineer stupid enough to be downrange from the crew hit the shields of the group with an Area Overload that didn't exactly do much, but it was still enough of an annoyance that LBR-3 bolts from Mirala, Garrus, John and James converged on the guy's head and blasted through his shields and armour. More Agents and some Vanguards surged in right after they'd dispatched the first group, and the ensuing firefight dragged for quite a few exchanges before the squad's firepower, protection, strength, biotics and mobility added up to critical mass.

They went into the atrium and ducked into cover as the ten or so Agents in the room noted them, firing and alerting the Vanguards, Heavies and Engineers in the area. James' Heavy Combat Drone annihilated two of the Citadel Tech Combat Drones before shooting down an Agent and pulling back to his shoulder docking point for repairs. It was one of the advantages of Coalition Engineer classes, they could choose to employ solid, heavier, much tougher and stronger drones as an alternative to the standard solid-light holograms. But the Heavy Combat Drones occasionally needed to RTB for repairs/shield recharge. In this case, it was after getting hit with three missiles from the rocket launchers these Shadow Broker Heavies deployed, a Warp, and two Incinerate Pulses.

John ducked behind his cover as two missiles zipped by over his head "Damn it guys, forget shields, just bulldoze them, we don't have time for this!"

Grunt had a good time, at least, judging by his grin when he finally finished blasting the last enemy. Garrus was a bit sour though, as his kill count had been less than Grunt's. They barged through the door, ramming it off its mechanisms and finding Vasir pinned down by Liara, who was advancing toward her in the parking lot of sky-cars. In the moment Liara turned to look at Shepard Vasir proved why she was a Spectre by putting a Throw field on the air-car between them and a Pull field on the one on Liara's other side while vaulting over the sky-car she was backed up against and jumping into her own sky-car that she'd called over.

Liara was effectively pinned for a moment until she lost her temper and threw the air-car against her front away from herself with her armour's strength, sending it flying and flipping about as she opened the door to the one her back was up against and jumped in, motioning the crew over to her.

"James, Mirala, Grunt with me, Garrus, search for any other survivors in the area and alert the Normandy's crew we'll likely need to leave soon." John stated as he climbed in next to Liara and took the controls right before Mirala pressed into his other side. "Why aren't you back there?"

"Grunt's too big." She said simply "More space up here, wouldn't you agree, Liara?"

"Well I guess, let's fly!" Liara called as John gunned the engine.

"I'm fine by the way, thanks for asking." He growled.

Liara winced internally at the cold tone before noticing her HUD light up the target. "There she is!" She called as they went around a container of some sort "Hang on, a right! No, a left!"

"I'm on her." John replied.

They nearly managed to cut Vasir off just before she ducked into a… "We're not going into the construction site are… oh Goddess…" They went through the site before entering a sky-car tunnel of some sort "I'm not letting her get away with that data!" They swerved out of the tunnel after Vasir before Liara noted something "Oncoming traffic!"

"We'll be fine." Shepard said dismissively, they could deal with being hit by an air-bus with only armour, so it wouldn't be a problem.

"She's dropping proximity charges!"

Shepard snorted, the symbols on his HUD really looked like Cybran Logos for some reason… "I noticed." They flew toward a tunnel entrance with a big poster of Jack over it. "Jack will like that…" Two rockets flew past and detonated against the tunnel roof.

"She's got reinforcements!" Liara exclaimed.

"What sort of guns does this thing have?"

"It's a taxi! It has a fare meter!" Liara pointed at said device rather…pointedly.

"Punch a hole in the roof and fire back through it, James." The sound of shattering glass (from a Cybran Heavy Armour fist, then the Marine the fist belonged to standing up) before an INL launch and the subsequent missile detonation echoed in the tunnel.

"TRUCK!" Liara warned

"I know!"

"YAAAAHHH!" She screamed as they barely dodged a fuel tank truck that was rolling end over end, it would more than likely explode soon… the blast behind them that shook the air-car announced the correctness of the thought.

"There we go." John grinned goofily as he continued the very slow (Their armour could fly over six times as fast with QP Packs, if they kept the safeties on) chase in the very NOT manoeuvrable sky-car.

"You're enjoying this." Liara glared accusingly, he smirked back.

_Of course, it might be the only chance I have to be this close to you for a long time, especially considering how you looked at that Drell, Feron's photo…_ His mind said darkly before another part of his brain spoke _Damn it, Shepard, you promised us no irrational jealousy, let's just hope we win in the end…_

Vasir was really beginning to annoy them now "James, cop the back of Vasir's car with an LBR shot, take it down."

James popped up out of the broken canopy, wind howling around him, and relinquished one shot "Already done, brother." The other Spectre's sky car crashed onto a hotel's mid-level balcony, and John followed it down, landing in the parking lot near the crash as Vasir stumbled inside. They overheard a transmission that only made John's LZ choice better, since it entailed open space and thus better Heavy Weapons opportunities, speaking of which…

* * *

_Azure, Ilium, February 8, 3871_

"Shadow Broker units inbound!" John barked. James shouldered his Temporal Fizz Launcher, John cradled the same plus his GLMG-3, Mirala carried her own Fizz Launcher (they were really popular after the Collector Base experiences), Liara her dual SMGs and Grunt hoisted his Mark Three Gauss Chaingun at his hip, giving the barrels an extra spin in readiness. They'd upgraded the firing rate from ten to twelve shots per second between the Mark Twos and Threes without cutting the power of each shot. The barrels rotated quite slowly, unlike most definitions of "Chaingun" but the firepower it could lay down and the six-barrelled easy-cooling design labelled it as such.

The first transport was… "Souped-up LOKIs?" Mirala commented sceptically, she stopped being so sceptical at the choice when the black-armoured mechs opened fire with shat seemed to be Mark One LBRs.

"How the hell did that tech leak out?" John exclaimed, trading fire with a mech and chipping away at its familiar black plating—startlingly similar to Coalition ship plating—slowly.

James snorted "Don't you remember? Someone or something broke into some old archives six months ago… right, you were dead, sorry." He winced at his words. "Anyways, we traced it to a Seven Hand agent… Brackman got rid of him in short order."

"Six months ago?" Mirala asked from where she was hitting a LOKI in the head with her LBR, taking it down with three Assault Mode shots after the shields popped. "I remember something around that time, shot him through the head from three hundred meters with my HMWSR. Brackman said it was an info leak."

"Huh, interesting." Grunt grunted "There's the last of that lot." He had mown down three of them (and mown in half the air-cars they had been hiding among) with his Chaingun already, though surprisingly they weren't one-shot kills unlike typical LOKIs.

Garrus gave a warning "More incoming!" He managed to shoot out the air-car's engines with his LBR-3 and it crashed on its side, spilling out more CMC-armoured troops, this time including some of the more specialty brands Raider Industries sold, namely Firebat and Marauder armour, both much tougher and bulkier than typical CMC-300 "Marine" armour as they'd branded it. "Fucking hell what are these things?" Garrus exclaimed, two of his sniper bolts being absorbed by the armour without too much apparent discomfort while the red-painted ones ran after him, trying to nail him with their flamethrowers. Though the flames weren't as good as Coalition-issue ones, they could still bleed away shields slowly, and more importantly, they obstructed vision.

"Raider Industries gear!" James yelled.

"Grunt, don't shoot anywhere except at the parking lot with that thing, we want to reduce collateral damage, not cause it!" John called out.

"Are you STUPID brother?" James bellowed.

"NO! I DON'T WANT TO FOOT THE BILL WHEN LIARA CAN JUST FLATTEN THEM ALL WITH A THOUGHT… Right?" John did a double-take toward his sort-of-ex-girlfriend.

"You know me well, John." Liara's optic light was smirking widely just before the Shadow Broker Troops started being pulled into several singularities that appeared among them. Those that weren't immediately grabbed in the miniature black holes were slammed into Stasis and turned into sitting ducks for the Normandy ground crew to disassemble.

"Thanks for the help, my fields were nearly gone with how many missiles they shot at me." Garrus ran over, armour badly scorched, battered and cratered, Mirala, James, John and Grunt donated some omni-gel for the armour to fix itself up faster before going back to frantic shooting.

* * *

"I'm bored." Grunt stated as the last air-car carrying Shadow Broker troops was vaporized by two Nanodarts from John and James, the twins had run out of patience by the fifth air-car load and simply blasted that one and this one out of the air with Nanodarts, though that also shattered every single window on the hotel facing them.

Mirala glanced over from where she was looting "I'm bored too." They got moving after no more air-cars appeared, taking a detour through a hotel suite…

"Please let me live, please let me live, I'll do the mantras every week, I'll give to charity…" Someone, a civilian by the sound of it, was muttering under their breath. "I'll go back to the Citadel and get a good job, I swear." The Asari was still mumbling as Shepard rounded the corner into the room, sweeping for threats with his LBR (by doctrine, though generally unnecessary as Omni picked up EVERYTHING and standard optical sensors rendered even active camo moot) before patting the human male patron on the head.

"Hey, what's happening here?" He asked, red helmet optics glaring down at the man.

"We're unarmed, we didn't see anything!" The man panicked, his hands on the back of his head.

Shepard rolled his eyes, and then noticed the wall he had walked beside to get in was a large screen currently showing a commercial. He blinked owlishly a few time before turning to Liara, who was also watching "What kind of hotel is this?"

Liara snorted "Azure, it's a luxury resort with an… exotic edge. Azure is slang for a part of the Asari body in some parts of Ilium."

Oh shit… _Liara seemed a bit uncomfortable with the nickname in the beginning but then started telling me to pound her azure… fuck, did I really spend our months together calling her a cunt? Damn we messed up…_ "Where?"

Liara shrugged "Mainly the lower reaches, near the bottom." Mirala made a small gagging sound as if trying to hold in laughter.

"I meant where on the Asari body?" _I need to know…_

Liara turned her head toward him with a smirk on her green mouth light "So did I."

John facepalmed and groaned, how incredibly unsophisticated this hotel was… and he had been… "Let's get to Vasir's car now." He said quietly, stepping over destroyed LOKI mechs as he did.

"Vasir left a psychic trail, I can sense it… it's as easy to trace as if she'd planted a row of billboards with big arrows." Liara hissed as they reached the hover-car.

Mirala did a double-take at her half-sister before stating "You really are more powerful than I am… I can barely feel it."

Liara shrugged "Well I am considered unusually strong even for an Asari… that way." She pointed and the squad followed, stepping over a dead LOKI and a dead guard before heading into another suite and running through, jumping over dead mechs and guards before breaking out onto a large open-air balcony with swimming pools and lounge tables. "Vasir, it's over!" Liara called triumphantly, sighting the enemy with her SMGs.

The other Spectre shook her blue head for a moment before turning "Hey! Hey you!" she used a biotic speed boost to grab a hostage "Come here, what's your name?"

"M… Mariana." The woman stammered, seeing the other patrons flee the area.

"Mariana." Vasir said the name as if tasting it "You want to live, don't you? Tell those people that you want to live."

"Please…" The scared woman said shakily.

Shepard's crew was also nearly shaking, with laughter. Laser weapons operated at the speed of light, unless Vasir expected to dodge that… right, she had shields, which would be a problem… "Vasir, you don't need to do this!" John called

"All you had to do was walk away…" Vasir shook her head and pushed the pistol to the side of Mariana's head, the woman trembled and closed her eyes, waiting for the gunshot, tears running down her cheeks. "Now it gets ugly."

"Please, I have a son…" she pleaded

"A son? I hope he gets to see you again, I've heard losing a parent is just horrific for children, scars them for life." Vasir said sadistically next to the woman's ear.

"I'm going to end you, Vasir." Liara growled, tightening her hold on her guns.

"It's okay, Liara, we'll handle it, the usual way." John said simply.

"You want Mariana's little boy to grow up without a mommy, Shepard? Weapons on the ground, now, grenades too." That just proved how little the Council Races knew about how nanolathing and by extension grenade bandoliers worked.

Shepard snorted "Is that it?"

Vasir started "What?"

"I sacrificed quite a few human lives to save the original Destiny Ascension" there had been intel recently that said the museum ship was undergoing major overhaul. "I unleashed the Rachni on the galaxy. The collective memory of the Cybran Nation includes battles with millions of civilian dead. For your sake, I hope your escape plan doesn't hinge on me hesitating to shoot a damned hostage!"

Vasir's pistol moved slightly from the hostage's head "You're bluffing…"

John smirked "Go ahead Liara." A mass effect field meant a huge whack to Vasir from a patio table without any outward sign of biotic use. Normally it would have been a harder whack, but the hostage situation didn't allow for it, though Vasir still went flying into a swimming pool. The hostage scampered away before Vasir jumped out of the water and used a Charge to move further away. She pulled something off her back that unfolded into something that looked suspiciously like a Mark Two Gauss Light Machine Gun.

LBR and GLMG fire crossed one another as John, James and Mirala started an artillery duel with Vasir, who was difficult to hit even with lasers as she was Charging all over the place. Liara and Grunt were busy battling off the sky-cars full of Shadow Broker troops that kept dropping in, as well as large hordes of Rocket Drones that were more cannon fodder than anything for the high-powered Phasic SMG and Sonic Pulse Shotgun, one or two blasts were enough to deal with each drone.

"Back in a bit, have fun!" Vasir called before charging up to an upper balcony, out of the crew's line of fire, though still lobbing rounds down at them with an LBR, probably the same LBR that.

"Ignore her, we can't reach her practically without dealing with these guys first! Focus on the others!" John barked. "Mirala, Liara, scrap the drones!"

After a long exchange with the ground troops, Vasir was back for another artillery duel, this time with her LBR-2 and charging all over the place, successfully giving Liara a couple of close-range blasts with her rifle that knocked the information broker's personal shields off and hit her structural fields quite a bit, sending her stumbling with the concussive force of the LBR Overcharge that left a smoking scorch mark on her chest plate.

"FUCK YOOOOOOUUUUU!" John yelled as he charged Vasir, who Charged him right back…

It was a horrifically bad idea, as Mirala had discovered while practicing in the Normandy's Range (before it had been breached in the Collector Base battle and repaired) without her own armour on. Coalition Marine Armour didn't feel or seem it, but in terms of encountering impacts… it was damned heavy when it needed to be, a Charge from someone not similarly armoured would at worst send a Marine stumbling a bit, still holding onto his guns. At best, well…

There was loud "Oof!" as John tackled Vasir around the middle, barely stumbling as he battered through the rippling mass effect fields. Still roaring in rage he sent them flying straight over the side of the pool they were headed for. Vasir's back hit the other side of the pool with a satisfying crunch of her shotgun breaking as they hit the water with a splash, throwing up a huge, wet spray of water ejecta at the high speed oblique angle impact. John then proceeded to drag Vasir down to the bottom by turning down his armour's mass reduction fields like they'd been turned down automatically to weather the Charge.

Liara, leaving the Shadow Broker troops around the area to the others (who were having a grand time), arrived at the side of the pool in time to note the purple blood rising to the surface before a suit of matter black armour with red highlights and optics burst form the surface, dragging a badly mauled Asari with it. John dropped Vasir, now with a broken nose and a developing black eye (before he remembered he could use spiked fists, which explained the broken nose having slash marks) plus more than a few dented/cracked armour plates, and motioned Liara over to grab the disk. By now, the battle had died down around them as Liara picked up the disk. "Sekat's personal data pad, this has what we need to find the Shadow Broker." Liara walked off, and John sighed, looking at her retreating form for a moment before hauling Vasir up and pounding her back to the pavement, holding her by the throat and shaking her.

"You're… dead, the Shadow Broker has been in power for decades, he's stronger than anything you've ever faced…" Vasir wheezed out, coughing blood from how hard Shepard had punched her without even really using his armour's strength.

Shepard shifted his grip and grabbed one side of her fringe instead, still holding her down loosely by her neck, the three soldiers backing him ensuring she tried nothing stupid "Is that why you sold out the Council to work for him?"

"You think I betrayed the Council? Like Saren? Go to hell." Vasir said, glaring sideways at Shepard angrily, she couldn't move, true, the fringe was an erogenous zone for Asari, but that also meant if tugged hard it could be painful. Shepard had never tried ripping off an Asari's fringe before, simply because of the cruelty inherent in it, and he wouldn't do it, but it was good to have fear helping you. "The Broker's given me damn good intel over the years, intel that saved lives and kept the Citadel safe! So if the Broker needs a few people to disappear, I'll pay that price without hesitation!"

Shepard snorted "You might have had good intentions at the start but you've gone too far, Vasir, tell yourself what you like but the Council would never accept you working for the Shadow Broker."

"The Council… you pay them lip service while being a member of a race eerily akin to the Geth?" Tela said incredulously, a bit muffled from her broken nose. "Do you have any idea what the so-called Independent Colonies say Cybrans have done?"

John sighed "I know what we've done, what the Seven Hand Node did. It doesn't matter."

"I think it does, you want to judge me? Look in the mirror, kidnapping kids for biotic death camps, killing Coalition admirals who ask questions, the Thresher Maw attack on Akuze… and you're with them… don't you dare judge me… don't you…" Tela found herself suddenly unable to breathe with the fist closing on her blue throat. She tried to pry it off, but the grip was unrelenting.

"The Seven Hand Node was rejected from the Cybran Nation long ago, and Akuze was proven to be initially a comm. failure." Shepard hissed "Your collaboration with the Shadow Broker, on the other hand…" He let go a little, allowing Tela to gulp for air "The charge is treason; the punishment is one hundred years hard labour, parole possible fifty years after the Reaper War ends." He shot her in the belly, and she only had time to gasp in shock before her body ceased moving in the stasis field the emitter threw up. "Call for a pick-up. She's going to a labour camp" There wasn't much point to the camps, since labour wasn't really required, it was basically a way to make people miserable, though transgressions (i.e. fighting) inside the compounds were strictly cracked down on.

* * *

_Azure, Ilium, February 8, 3871_

"Eliminate T'Soni and retrieve the data, civilian casualties not a concern." The Shadow Broker was saying in the recording.

"Vasir's soon going to be locked up in a labour camp in Coalition Space, she's been dealt with." John reported, removing his helmet.

Liara ignored him, also having taken off her helmet. "I'm putting the data through to the Normandy's computers, we can be at the Shadow Broker's base in under an hour." She shut the display off "He'll know about Vasir disappearing from his operational areas soon enough, if he decides to kill Feron…" Liara couldn't continue her defeatist thoughts, it wasn't fair to John. She started to walk away without even glancing back at him, feeling a bit ashamed she didn't even look back when he took hits but he tackled another Spectre and beat her to a pulp because she'd gotten a dent in her structural fields.

John shivered internally, suppressing the sudden jealousy at Liara's heart-wrenching tone of worry to go on to the first priority right now: offering a shoulder for her to lean on if need be. He laid a hand on her shoulder, and both stopped moving, oblivious to how James was helping Mirala "persuade" Grunt to give them some privacy by pushing.

Grunt's optics finally widened as if a light bulb went off inside his head "Excellent, well, I hope my Battlemaster can reconcile with her, breed well, Battlemaster!" He called as he walked off happily, Mirala and James head-walling in frustration.

Neither Liara nor John noticed anything "We'll get Feron out of there alive, Liara, I promise."

Liara shook the hand off, taking another couple steps to distance herself from him. "I know, you're here to help, just like always." She'd always been the one to need his help, it wasn't fair to him to have such a needy woman as his mate, what if one day she needed him and he wasn't there? It would probably hurt him, badly, if she died… she didn't want to hurt him like that.

John frowned and took another step forward "That's not a good thing?" He asked sceptically.

Liara sighed "When we first met on Therum you saved me from the Geth, you fought a Krogan Battlemaster while I cowered. Now you're doing it again, and I'm still leaning on you for help."

"That's what friends do, Liara." _That's what I was born to do… help you… Unless you don't want me even as a friend anymore?_

She ignored him, turning and continuing the walk down the hall while Grunt, Mirala and James peered around the corner furtively, following them for juicy gossip material. "I can get us there, based on Sekat's data, the Normandy's stealth systems will keep them from detecting us. The shadow Broker's agents are still shooting through Ilium, with luck they won't notice we've left until it's too late." They emerged onto a section of the hall open to the rainy air outside.

"That's a little cold." That prompted Liara to stop and turn around "They killed innocent people."

She shook her head "You know what I mean."

"Do I?" John frowned, taking a couple steps forward, feeling discomfort inside him somewhere that he was bringing out the sadness clearly expressed on Liara's beautiful face. "When I hit the ground back at the trade center, you went after Vasir without a backward look."

Liara couldn't bear the disappointed look etched on the face of the man she loved with all her being, so she turned and propped her elbows on the balcony edge, looking out to the storm still pouring rain down into Nos Astra "A little fall wasn't going to kill you, I had to stay on Vasir, stay rational, make the call like I did with Sekat." Actually, it was more of a sort of rage at Vasir striking John pushing her to fly after the other Asari, but that was beside the point.

"That's Vasir's fault, not yours." John laid a careful hand on one burnished shoulder pauldron of Liara's armour.

"Sekat had no idea what the stakes were. I put him in harm's way to get the data I needed, I got him killed, and I'd do it again." She pushed herself back upright "But from here on out, things will be simpler, get in, get Feron, get out… and kill anyone who tries to stop us." They walked back Vasir's crashed sky-car.

"That's it?" John asked the back of Liara's head dejectedly.

Liara didn't even look at him, she didn't want to see what expression he had on his face, whether good or bad… "That's it."

John had had enough, he needed to get an answer if at all possible, even if it was negative and made him want to find a hole somewhere to shoot himself in. He had to know. "Will you just stop for a second? We'll be Quantum Jumping, there's time to talk!"

"About what?" Liara was scared, would this be the moment when John finally decided he'd had enough of waiting for an unresponsive woman who ignored him after he came back from the dead? She hadn't ignored him, his e-mail just hadn't worked for some reason, almost as if he'd blocked her…

John rolled his eyes up for a moment in exasperation, feeling a bit betrayed at how she'd been studiously ignoring the fact that he had just hauled his ass back through Omega 4 "About us!"

Liara took a step forward, though inside she was a bundle of nerves, the exasperation hadn't been a good sign… "Shepard, listen, I'm glad you're here…" She started, but was interrupted before she got to finish.

"You worried there might be terminals you need to hack?" John instantly regretted the words. They were unlike him, impulsive and confrontational, more like what James would have said… What would have been more typical for him would be to fall on his knees and plead with her to take him back, as her slave if need be, but the three green contacts behind him more or less forbade that sort of thing in all but the direst circumstances. The shimmering of tears he suddenly saw in her eyes, now a rich blue again, made him feel like the lowest scum in the universe, like his insides were curling up and dying in revulsion.

Liara sniffled, she'd been expecting something like this, but that didn't make it hurt any less when he started accusingly "That's not fair! You were dead!"

"I came back!" John said defensively, praying that the "you were dead" wasn't trying to tell him she'd moved on, found someone else… that would be like shooting him with a salt-loaded sandblaster.

"It's not that easy! You can't just come back and have two years of mourning" Liara felt a wave of nausea washing over her at the lie she was telling, she hadn't given herself time to grieve, if only because the Cybran Nation assured her they could bring him back "suddenly vanish!" It was the best excuse she could come up with for her inner turmoil over whether to take him back, and bare her heart to be stabbed through again when he got himself killed, or let him go, and wonder for the rest of her long life what it would feel like to be complete again. On the surface it seemed like a simple issue, however there was also the fact that the Coalition as a whole didn't like the Council very much and the Council Races NEEDED Coalition help in the oncoming Reaper War.

John quivered inside. A dark side of his being remarked _I doubt she'd sweep two years of others under the rug to make room for you again… I seriously doubt she has the same sort of incomplete feeling you do when you're not with her, or at least around her…_ before he squashed it with _Have faith, this is Liara we're talking about_ Liara put a hand to her forehead, tilting her head back slightly and reminding Shepard of just how much he had enjoyed running his tongue over her smooth neck before she lowered the hand… "I'm sorry, John, I can't get into this,"… and struck a blow to his faith… "for now, let's just focus on getting Feron back."

He sighed, knowing he should let the matter be, as pressing wouldn't change her choice or opinions except for the worse (for his side). If she was so determined to find this Feron guy, hell, even if she had found in him what John Shepard had failed to give her—the happiness she deserved—then so be it. Any (non-absurd) objective of hers was an objective of his, even if it killed him inside to accomplish her objective. _If it makes her happy, then so mote it be._

* * *

A/N: John Shepard is an idiot. He's taking everything negatively because he is depressed by Liara's lack of even congratulations for surviving the Collector Base, who everyone said to be a suicide mission. He's usually more perceptive than this, but Liara's gotten too good at hiding things from him.


	47. Into the Storm

A/N: I'm changing Hagalaz somewhat to suit evolutionary theory.

I'd also like to note it appears one-village-idiot has died of shock during the reading of Ch 44 because he hasn't reviewed since Ch 43. He's usually a lot more prompt about it. If you're still alive and reading this, one-village-idiot, and know the identity of Commander T'Soni, please PM me with your guess, do not reveal it in a review.

* * *

Chapter 47: Into the Storm

_Hagalaz, February 8, 3871_

The Omni Sensors of the Normandy clearly picked up a large aerial signature following the storm constantly raging around the terminator between day and night. _The conditions on the planet would be no problem whatsoever for Coalition units or even Marines to handle, but the same could not be said of Council Tech. It was a mostly barren planet, the conditions too unforgiving for life to have time to begin really evolving to adapt. It had less gravity and atmosphere than Earth, and also much shallower oceans, shallow enough to…_

Liara looked at the readouts on the Restorer's internal displays, feeling a surge of nostalgia as they flew through the storm without even vibrations of the T3 AA Gunship "Hagalaz, the oceans boil during the day, then snap freeze ten minutes after sundown."

…_what Liara said._ John finished his mental intel run-through "The Shadow Broker lives in this?"

"His ship follows the sunset, completely undetectable in the storm, unless you know where to look or have Coalition Radar or Omni. We've got them all."

"How do we get inside? Blast a hole?" James asked, checking his LBR.

Liara shook her head "That would probably crash the ship, so no. The shuttlebay is locked down, we'll need to land on the ship and hunt for a hatch, but we can't stay outside for too long, that would give him time for an escape plan."

The Restorer came into direct optical sensor range of a ship about half again as long as the Normandy but which was around the same height and width. Most of it seemed to be dedicated to engines, lightning capacitors, and reactors to keep the thing aloft in the clouds. They would start the search near the front to not miss anything. "Alright, primary ground crew out! Secondary crew standby, land the Restorer here and make sure it doesn't get stolen!" John called.

John, Legion, Kasumi, Miranda and Liara went over the top while Garrus, Mordin, James, Mirala, Grunt and Thane formed the backup group. Liara marked something with a nav-point, calling "I'm picking up comm. signals from a massive array at the back of the ship! There's nothing below but maintenance equipment, we have to find an entrance near the back shielding."

They proceeded along the hull until they picked up incoming land units on their HUD Radar. "Maintenance Drones!" John barked as he put one down with a single Assault Mode LBR bolt.

"They probably think we're debris from the storm!" Liara called as the quickly cleared out the drones. They went around and up onto a catwalk before Liara dispensed the next piece of wisdom: "Those capacitors discharge lightning, try firing on them."

"No, we don't want the ship to crash, just in case our weapons turn out too good." Regardless, the three more Agents that popped up were relatively simple for John and Legion to pick off, not to mention Liara and Miranda's biotics to throw them overboard.

A lower platform on the squad's left, the starboard side of the ship, allowed them to advance, three LOKIs providing meagre fodder for the seven guns (Liara and Kasumi dual-wielded) the Normandy ground crew had to bring to bear.

The next combat area was much harder, especially as Shepard ordered them NOT to shoot the lightning capacitor, which meant cloaking, sneaking up to, and shooting the enemies at point blank range. It wasn't that difficult, just bad for energy reserves, the same energy reserve that multiplied the power of biotic and tech attacks, and was important for rate of weapons fire if nothing else. Oh, and it also affected shield and field regen rates. Shepard pulled up the Rod Controls and lowered the huge slab-like lightning rod before engaging the enemies on the other side in a blazing gunfire with no regard whatsoever for shields… which popped but had lasted long enough to take down all the enemies anyways. The lightning capacitor on their side going off under fire was not a problem, Coalition gear was designed to operate under ALL conditions.

They kept moving, breezing through some more LOKIs that just imploded for no apparent reason… until the crew noted the smirk on Liara's face as she flicked the three baseball-sized pieces of compacted scrap metal that remained over the edge of the ship. Needless to say, they all looked pointedly at John in a way that said _If you want to be the one to date her, go ahead, just don't be surprised if it's your head she's crushing next._

John rolled his eyes in response, Liara would never hurt him like that… More Agents ahead… "Liara, nail the bastards!" Liara sent a singularity flying over into the group, trapping them all in the gravity well before moving it over the side of the ship and letting go. The screaming was whipped away by the wind, but the whole crew knew what the fate of those unfortunate Shadow Broker Agents and LOKI mechs would be.

They walked into a hatch to the engines… but which surprisingly didn't go anywhere else inside the ship. "This ship is interesting, it must have taken decades to build in secret." Liara remarked.

"I wonder what happened to the contractors." John said dryly, half-hearted and trying not to look at her, not to think too much about the fact that the man they were here to rescue might well be his rival.

"I think we can guess" Liara said, similarly dryly, feeling a modicum of irritation at how John had sounded so bland instead of his once-usual good humour."Navigating this storm is brutal, if the ship engines stop even for a moment… At least the Shadow Broker would go down."

"And of course we'd blast and fly our way out."

"Of course…" Liara noticed something and pointed "Hey, look, motion dampeners, not as good as Inertial Control, but I still bet you can't even hear the storm inside the main hull."

They went outside again, along the side of the ship, noting a particularly large knot of hostiles, Shepard plotted a couple of waypoints for QP Pack flight before he issued the activate order "Up and over! Liara, yank 'em off the edge!"

The squad flew through the wind easily, as their packs were technically capable of much higher speeds but safety concerns kept it down to a mere 288 km/h in any direction, any weather. The Shadow Broker troops on the other hand, did not.

After making their way to a ramp up the hull, they popped into cover against the barrage of missiles directed down at them. Grenades wouldn't be very useful in the high wind, so… Shepard waited for a lull in the rocket launcher fire before popping up from his cover, Overclock enabled, and began shooting, time seemingly slowing down as his electronic parts sped up. Legion was most likely doing the same thing considering his speed and accuracy came close to rivalling John's. They took down four foes before another volley made them duck behind cover. Sure, it wouldn't have punched through their structural fields, but doctrine held that minimizing damage to self, when there wasn't a doomsday countdown, was the way to go. Oh, that and the squad members disliked the shield down alarm.

Liara seemed a bit impatient, making a growling noise before flying up and throwing one arm forward and down, before she herself came down. A series of explosions followed the impact of whatever attack she had thrown hitting the deck. John came out from behind his cover…

"Impressive…" Miranda said, actually sounding sincere about it as they walked into the couple centimetres of dent made in the external hull, a hand-shaped depression that covered the whole area the mercs, had once covered. It was painted with the flattened remains of the mercs, exposed heads and limbs torn off easily, becoming nothing more than puddles of pulverized goo, puddles that reminded John of the Collector Base too much for comfort.

They went up and over a set of panels before dealing with two Shadow Broker Agents that obstructed them (read: threw over the edge by Liara's vastly overpowered biotics). A zap from a Combat Drone meant a powerful melee to the holographic device from Kasumi, which instantly popped it, before an Area Overload stripped the offending cluster of hostiles of their shields. The urgency John could sense in Liara meant those hostiles were "Gone with the Wind" with but a thought, the lack of even a corona or the biotic boosters/assistance gear in the armour activating illustrated just how much her power had grown. Her impatience seemed to have grown too. Perhaps it was a partial side-effect of being an Ardat-Yakshi? Or rather, an Ardat-Yakshi with no kills so far?

The next corner John rounded, this time on a particularly narrow walkway, presented two Heavies and another Agent against John only, as the walkway was impractically narrow on his end. "I'll handle this alone!" He barked as he opened up, not even trying to dodge the return fire, which took a bite out of his recharged over-shield with the rocket and GLMG-1 fire. Shepard kept up the pressure with his LBR, grabbing his own GLMG-3 to help, and the Heavy went down first, then he shifted the unerringly accurate, recoilless rounds to the Agents, cutting through their shields and armour in a few seconds, a few seconds too many. "These guys seem better-armoured than the ones we've met before, even Mark Ones can do a lot of damage if used right…" Shepard said slowly, inspecting the weapons.

A long, peaceful walk later, they retracted another lightning rod and moved along the catwalk it exposed. "Not even a guard rail, I bet the Shadow Broker's troops love patrolling the hull…" Shepard remarked.

Liara shrugged "at least the view is nice… aha, we've found the nav-point, that hatch leads directly to the comm. signals." She ran ahead to it, having checked her HUD for trap detection already. "It's locked, hang on, I've got a bypass shunt program that can crack it." She deployed the program in question.

"How long will it take?" John asked, looking at his HUD Radar/Omni readout.

"I don't know, Shepard, I've never broken into the Shadow Broker's base before… well, not this one, anyway."

"Threats inbound." John stated, Kasumi, Legion and Miranda were already firing away and deploying various abilities. John also started laying down LBR fire "You sure that shunt is working?"

"It's illegal even on Ilium, it didn't come with a warranty." Liara stated blandly.

"But you tested it, right?" John glanced at her before putting more bolts downrange and toppling a Vanguard before ducking back behind cover from incoming rockets.

Liara changed the topic "More of them from the right!"

Kasumi and Liara turned to deal with the new threats. "Tell me you tested it!" John demanded an answer.

"No time to talk!" Liara said hurriedly.

Shepard, Legion and Miranda finished mopping up their side and went over to the other side to help out "Liara!" John growled.

"I'm sure it won't be much longer…"

Shepard sighed as he put down another Agent, one of the poorer-armed ones (only a Gauss Rifle), with a volley of laser bolts "Remember the old days when you could just slap omni-gel on everything?"

"That security upgrade made a lot of people unhappy." Liara responded. "More on the way, Rocket Drones from the bow!"

Legion lost over-shields first, then Miranda as the two handled the rocket drones quickly and efficiently, but not enough to not take at least a few hits. The Agents on Shepard's end of things seemed to be trying for an artillery duel, not wise with enemies who outrange and outgun you. "How long is the shunt gonna take? Should I deploy my Cybran circuitry work?"

"It should only be a little while, they'd be more effective if they attacked all at once instead of these disorganized waves…" Liara called as they engaged the next wave coming from the stern of the ship.

John noted Legion's personal shields were actually starting to accrue noticeable damage on his squad panel "Don't give the mercs any ideas, please." Liara didn't respond as she took down another agent with three LSMG bolts and two Phasic SMG rounds.

"The next wave looks like a big one!" Liara noted, looking at the combined Radar/Omni readouts of the squad on her mini-map.

Shepard sighed "You just had to give them tactical advice…"

"But now there'll be fewer left to deal with inside…" Liara threw a cluster off the edge of the ship with but a thought when they blasted through her over-shield.

John snorted as his OS popped "Keep dreaming, T'Soni."

The shunt finally opened the door and the squad rushed in after gunning down the last of this wave. Liara was right, after they passed the inner hull boundary, they couldn't even hear the storm outside, nor really feel it. The pounding footsteps and hostile contacts picked up from ahead encouraged ducking into cover, for the moment if nothing else "More of them?" Liara questioned incredulously as another rocket detonated against her wall, a useless flash-bang dropped next to her before going off and doing absolutely nothing "How many guards does the Shadow Broker have?"

John shrugged as he swung out of cover and gunned down an Engineer with four Assault Mode bolts "Don't know, don't care, we shoot them, they die, good enough for me."

Legion weathered the next rocket on his personal shield, unfazed by the shockwave that had been held away from his body the Geth put two sniper Mode bolts into the Heavy and silenced her. Kasumi, Miranda and Liara took care of the Agents with dollops of SMG fire that completely over-killed them.

They moved over the corpses and into the next hallway, which might as well have been a shooting gallery for all the cover it offered. Miranda Slammed the Engineer, Kasumi emptied close-range gunfire into the Heavy with her LSMG and Liara and the Vanguards traded Warp fields, with the obvious result of Liara's rending the other Asari into puddles of liquefied flesh and scrapped armour after absorbing the much weaker mass effect fields the Vanguards had projected. The Agents were left for John and Legion, who, relying on superior protection, simply stood there and traded laser bolts for GLMG rounds that did a number on their personal shields… right before their over-shields rebooted.

The next hallway was more of the same, Liara's Warp fields, powerful enough to rend a Geth Armature into scrap metal (and according to other trials enough to do the same to UEF engineering drones even with structural fields, Cybran ones were too fast to target) made the balance of power even more lopsided than before. Kasumi and Miranda's Area Overloads, though weaker than Tali's would have been, didn't help.

The door at the end of the hall was locked, so they went down a side passage, looking around at the consoles "Look at the energy flowing through those cables. The Broker's threaded his information network through the entire ship! The power to run it must be quite large, on the order of a Tier 1 Power generator at least."

"Interesting." Miranda remarked, John stayed quiet as they ran down more hallways.

"I've downloaded the ship's layout, we're headed toward the prison block… and Feron." Liara stated as they moved further.

John grunted, he didn't need to be reminded of what they were here to do. The fact that Liara was more excited about rescuing this guy than him coming back through the Omega-4 Relay alive said enough about the situation.

"Marks in the interior! D point, regroup!" A feminine voice called from an intercepted radio transmission as Kasumi, who was spearheading and cloaked, started spreading chaos among the Shadow Broker troops.

The next exchange was a bloodbath, pure and simple, biotics, gunfire and tech attacks slammed back and forth between opposing battle lines, and over-shield bubbles popped on the Normandy side from Gauss Rifle Disruptor Ammo. Personal shields started wearing thin as they traded fire from cover with what seemed to be elite troops judging by their superior armour and weapons. The outcome was inevitable, Shepard and co liberating credits from the corpses and a console before bypassing a door, entering and checking the room plus their Radars for threats before Lira noted the sole occupant, a Drell, and lowered her guns to her armour slots. "Feron!"

The Drell woke up and blinked groggily "Liara?"

Liara ran over to the control console "Hold on… we're getting you out of here!" Sadly, it only resulted in the guy getting shocked and Liara jumping back from the console "Feron!"

"I thought this looked too easy… are you alright?" John questioned.

"This chair plugs into the Shadow Broker's info network, you have to shut off the power, pull me out now, and my brain cooks." That wasn't good…

"Do you know where we can cut the power?" Liara asked.

Feron's head slumped back against the headrest "It won't be easy, you'll have to get to central operations."

"What's the point of this cage?" John asked, looking around at the gear.

"I don't—AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Feron was shocked again.

Liara was first to identify it "It's a neural grounding rod, the medical equipment is to make sure he doesn't expire. We have to shut this place down!"

"Where did the Broker get his mercs?" John pushed for information.

"Raised his own private force, they're completely loyal—AHHHHHHHHH!" Feron got shocked again.

"Shepard, we really don't have the time!" Miranda grumbled from where she was leaning on the wall, noting incoming contacts at the edge of radar range.

"What do you know about the Broker?" John asked, it would be the last question.

"He did this to me." Feron was being rather obvious.

John sighed "I was hoping you'd know what he is."

Feron shrugged "I never got a good look, but he's big, the guards are terrified of him."

Liara frowned "A Krogan?"

Feron wagged his head helplessly "I don't know, but not everyone who visits his office comes back out."

Shepard snorted "Easy or not, we're all getting out of here."

"Good… central operations is down the hall, you know the Shadow Broker's waiting for you, right?"

John smirked viciously "I'm counting on it."

"We'll be back for you Feron!" Liara called.

"I'll try not to go anywhere." Feron deadpanned. Kasumi and Shepard chuckled at that as they drew their weapons to join Legion and Miranda at the battle just starting outside.

"I want all teams to outpost C." The Shadow Broker boomed over the comm.

* * *

The Broker shut off his holo-consoles and clasped his hands on his desk as they advanced into the large room, weapons levelled. He twiddled his thumbs casually as the squad levelled their weapons at him. "Here for the Drell?" he asked in a deep, booming voice, different from the PA one, probably a voice conversion program… "Reckless, even for you, Commander."

Shepard smirked "Not reckless, just determined, ask your Asari Spectre about that."

"Vasir was expendable, all her capture cost me was time." John frowned at the Shadow Broker's words, apparently he hadn't learned time was money yet…

"Expendable like Feron?" Liara asked, both her SMGs levelled.

"Dr. T'Soni, your interference caused all this. Feron betrayed me when he handed you Shepard's body" It hadn't been much of a body if the medical data John had seen was any indication, but he was too lazy to correct the Broker's diction. "The Drell is simply paying the price."

John rolled his eyes "Someone was bound to come after you for working with the Collectors."

"It was a mutually beneficial partnership. Fortunately the Normandy's IFF will let me salvage whatever remains of the Collectors' base." _If you want desk-sized bits, go ahead._ Shepard thought.

"It'll be pretty hard to run a base this size" And made of mostly Council Tech "with no crew."

"They're replaceable, your arrival is barely an interruption. Enough talk, my operations are too crucial to be compromised by a traitor."

Liara raised an eyebrow optic "You're quite confident for someone with nowhere left to hide…"

The Shadow Broker actually glanced at her this time "You travel with fascinating companions, Doctor. At least you brought me the Commander, an interesting Geth, Miss Lawson and the legendary Master Thief, I'm almost tempted to check my pockets, but I'll just recover whatever they stole from their corpses…"

"You're not laying a hand on anyone!" Liara snarled.

The Shadow Broker turned to look at her "It's pointless to challenge me, Asari, I know your every secret, while you fumble in the dark."

Liara tilted her head "Is that right?" She snorted "You're a Yahg, a pre-spaceflight species quarantined to their homeworld for massacring the Council's first contact teams. This base is older than your planet's discovery, which probably means you killed the original Shadow Broker roughly eighty years ago, then took over. I'm guessing you were taken from your world by a trophy hunter who wanted a slave… or a pet. How am I doing?"

"A Yahg? Eighty years ago? He must have been taken just before his kind was obliterated then." Miranda stated. At Liara, Legion and the Broker's look of confusion she added "After they killed the initial Aeon contact team the Illuminate sent in several commanders and completely cleansed the planet of all life before we re-terraformed and colonized it, which was roughly in the timeframe you described."

The broker rose to his full height, even taller than a Krogan's typical 230 cm (they generally slouched) by a large amount. He smashed his desk with a single blow and hurled half at the squad, resulting in Miranda and Kasumi being knocked back as they countered the throw with their own armoured punches, shattering the half of the heavy desk. Shepard had thrown himself and Liara out of the way with an arm around her waist instinctively while Legion also dove to the side. The Yahg, the last of his species, roared in fury before drawing a Gauss Chaingun (thankfully only a Mark 2, not the newest Mk 3) from his back and opening fire with the sound of a giant, which he was, ripping cloth. (A/N: Think the gun Tychus has in the SC2 Campaign, especially the mission to grab the Odin)

"Miranda, Kasumi, Legion, go hold the side passage, I'm picking up his reinforcements coming from there!" Shepard yelled as he opened fire right back, dual-wielding his LBR and GLMG. His eyes widened as he picked up a familiar, characteristic over-shield bubble. "How'd he salvage the over-shield from my old armour?" It had been the only Coalition armour to ever go incompletely recovered after all.

No one replied as they ran around, shooting at the Broker, who appeared to be wearing salvaged plates from the original Normandy instead of the plates that came with his Marauder armour. They hadn't been classed as "sensitive technology" since Council Tech could have produced them with lots of work and money, but apparently it had been so uneconomical for Council Tech to make it that the Broker had salvaged the less damaged parts of external hull plating, sliced it, and used the material for his own armour, since it was absorbing tremendous amounts of damage…

* * *

Once they'd shot him enough though, the Broker activated what appeared to be a fortress shield, the problem was that the generators were nowhere in sight, he was most likely drawing right from the ship's power supply… "The shield's too strong, our rounds are just bouncing off!" Liara called as her Phasic munitions and laser bolts ricocheted off the Broker.

Shepard extended his fist spikes "Then we do this the hard way." He charged the Broker and gave the huge being a swift kick in the arse with his armour's strength, making the Broker stumble forward slightly before turning around to be met with a hard left hook. The Broker's omni-tool flared for a moment before a large orange shield popped from it and allowed him to bat Shepard away… for now.

After enough shooting by Liara and John, a lot of Warp and more than a few Throws, Stasis, and Singularities, the Broker was forced to bring up the fortress shield again, meaning John had to QP Pack over from the other side of the room where he'd run to. The result was a high-speed collision of two rather large masses, the smaller one being the projectile. Even with the shield, Shepard still managed to push forward until the Broker tilted the shield and flung him away again, this time bowling over Liara, who'd run up to help in whatever capacity she could.

The two got up slowly before continuing the firefight again, Shepard was starting to get annoyed "If nothing else works this time, heavy weapons are authorized." He growled as they started to rain fire on the Broker… again.

* * *

Shepard ducked behind his cover, this wasn't working nearly as well as he'd hoped, right now, he was low on structural fields, shields and OS gone from the Broker's gunfire. He apparently had a new form of ammo, a leeching round or something, which did a lot more to Shepard's shields than he had expected, sure, compared to Coalition tech it wasn't much, it was the rate of fire that did most of the wearing down of his shields…

The next time he popped up the Broker tagged him with a rocket to the face and he went straight back down again. Liara, who had just gotten back up from being meleed by the Broker's shield, roared as she saw the explosion throw Shepard down and out of cover, not moving. She saw red, not even bothering to check her squad panel she summoned her mind in what seemed to be an almost instinctive gesture…

The atmosphere in the room crackled with energy until it seemed to coalesce around the Broker before erupting inward in psionic lightning. The Yahg tried to run, but the Psi Storm tracked him until finally it destroyed his fortress shield in an extreme overload and annihilated whatever was left. The psionic sphere of lightning strikes condensed to a point before exploding outward with enough force to throw Liara off her feet and John against the wall. Even Legion, who had been stuck under a collapsed pillar (having been thrown in by a rocket blast from the side passage) for about a minute already, shifted with the shockwave, far enough to shove the pillar off himself without using an Electron Grenade for the job (his armour fields would have withstood the blast easily).

"An explosive Psi Storm…" Miranda, who had just come in with Kasumi, having held the side passages, breathed in awe "I heard only the strongest of Protoss High Templar were capable of even learning to use it…"

Liara shrugged mutely as she knelt by Shepard. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine, just got thrown a little, that's all." John said as he clamoured up, stripping off his helmet and noting the large scorch marks and pits in his armour that were mending only slowly. Liara nodded, and then walked over to the internal power controls, noting they were separated from engine power controls before hitting the switch.

Though John's brain knew there was no time, his heart couldn't help but note exactly how much Liara had changed since they first met, becoming a powerful leader, a tough-as-nails Coalition Marine… It was almost as if he had seen her undergo this transition before, almost as if she'd done it before. She seemed practiced at it, just as she'd seemed practiced at being with him, almost like they were made to match, two halves of a puzzle…

"Shadow Broker, this is Operative Murat, we had a momentary connection failure. Can you confirm status?" One of the previously blue voice patterns turned red on the display.

"Operative Shora requesting update, are we still online?" Another followed suit.

And another "Shadow Broker, I've lost our feed, we are online and awaiting instructions."

The feed dissolved into a babble of voices as one by one the voice patterns turned red. Liara bowed her head, thousands of thoughts running through her head at once, but the biggest one was _I can actually be useful to John now, help him, instead of failing him like I did before._ She stepped forward and brought up the voice conversion program on the holo-console. "This is the Shadow Broker, the situation is under control. We experienced a power fluctuation while upgrading hardware. It disrupted communications momentarily." The door opened behind them and Feron ran in with his pistol only to stop short at the sight of five gun barrels pointing at him. "However, we are now back online, resume standard procedures. I want a status report on all operations within the next solar day, Shadow Broker, out." Liara finished before shutting down the program.

The squad lowered their weapons as soon as Feron did, before he stumbled closer "Goddess of oceans, It's you. You… how?"

Liara pushed herself away from the console before turning around "Well, everyone who's ever seen him in person is dead, so…"

"… You're the new Shadow Broker." Feron sounded like he couldn't believe it.

"Is taking over as the Shadow Broker really a good idea?" John asked worriedly, he might have been whipped, but he wasn't stupid.

"It was either that or lose everything, his contacts, his trading sources, those will really help us." She turned back to the massive holo display "with the Shadow Broker's resources, I can give you… I can…" She trailed off, her breath catching slightly. _I can finally give him the help he deserves, stop being baggage, the damsel in distress, the leech… It's over… finally._

Feron blinked before stumbling back toward the door "I'll… uh, check the power systems." Miranda and Kasumi persuaded Legion to leave with them, or rather, dragged him out.

Liara took a few steps away from John before bittersweet tears began spilling down her face, she took off her helmet and right glove before wiping her eyes. Feeling a hand on her upper arm, she turned around "It's over, it's finally… for two years…" She didn't get to finish before John pulled her in for a hug, careful not to bump her with the more angular parts of his Cybran Heavy Armour.

"It's all right, let it out, I'm here." He didn't know if it was his place or not, but he guessed it probably was.

She pulled back just a little before planting her lips on his, much to his shock, his eyes closed instinctively and his hands moved up to her shoulder blades to pull her closer, but she pulled away instead. Liara didn't know what was up with herself, John could have found someone else, it might not have been her place, but it had felt so right… still, she had to say it "It's been two years, we're different people, You have your mission, and…"

Shepard may have been very cautious and such, in addition to being an alpha male, but he was NOT stupid enough to let something as perfect as this moment go. He stepped forward, wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her close, planting his lips firmly on hers. They shared a long, sweet kiss, lips conveying what words would spend and had spent millennia attempting to describe in a mere instant.

Liara broke away first, taking the lead as she always had in their relationship "Okay, okay" She nodded slightly, almost imperceptibly.

John grinned so broadly he felt like his face would fall off "Okay." The grin slid off when she removed his arms from around her from their gentle hold, nearly effortlessly considering how relaxed his arms had become.

"But we should focus, let's see what our options are." Liara walked over to the console, and John suddenly missed her warm breath mingling with his own. "No safeguards or user restrictions, it's like he never anticipated anyone but himself being here… and it's all ours."

"What kind of information are we talking about?"

"I'm not sure, I'll need to go through his files. Come back later and I'll try to have something useful for you." That was an obvious dismissal, which left only one option for John considering the speaker's identity—absolute obedience. "All I wanted was to rescue Feron, but… is it wrong that part of me wants this?" She turned to watch Shepard questioningly "With the Shadow Broker's network, I can help you. Maybe I can turn this operation into something better."

John sulked internally, saying slowly "Don't be a stranger this time."

Liara smirked "Small chance of that, come back soon." _If she had wanted to be more obvious to me she could have just told me to scram…_ John thought in irrational irritation as he left, before his more sensible side took over.

* * *

A/N: Hmm, something is seriously up with Liara's psionics, well, we'll see most of what it is in SupCom: Reclaimers, you'll have to wait until I get through the real reunion and Arrival first though.


	48. The Real Reunion

A/N: A bit over half the chapter is smut, just warning you. I mean, what's the reunion without at least some sex? Also, expect Arrival to be right after this.

Does anyone else find it really weird that Liara greets you on a TV screen? Isn't this… I don't know, the FUTURE? They have holographic drones! Why not a holoprojector for greetings?

For the record, don't put in any requests for Fallout-related things, I've never played any Fallout games, and with SupCom tech, they rebuilt Earth effectively from an ash ball in under twenty years. Fallout actually has life still living, easy as hell to re-terraform.

* * *

Chapter 48: The Real Reunion

_Hagalaz, February 13, 3871_

They had slapped on extra emergency boosters so Liara would be able to get her armour on and QP Pack (ah, the endurance of Coalition Armour Energy reserves!) to orbit before the ship had a chance to crash. At least, the non-combat crew did, the combat crew were taking a break… well, most of them were, Legion was complaining about the improbability of Shepard's poker skills for half the first night. The afternoons had been spent on video games and ACU Simulator matches while Shepard tried to not think about how he should have invited Liara over to the Normandy.

John gave on waiting (and got bored of charting the system, playing video games, training, physical training regimen, etc.) by the fifth day, so… he walked down the shuttlebay hall with a personal shield emitter, just in case (though Liara had reported everything fine on her end), and was met by Liara on a TV screen. "Shepard! It's good to see you again! I've set up a few terminals with info I think you'll find interesting, take a look!" The door ahead opened and a hovering white drone floated out.

"Welcome back, Shadow Broker!" the Drone said cheerily.

"What's this?" Shepard asked Liara's TV image, hoping there was a cam there, while one hand drifted to his Laser Pistol holster.

"That's the old Broker's VI assistant, it's actually been helpful with rebuilding the network."

"Please let me know if I can organize anything else for you, Shadow Broker." The Drone said before flitting off.

"It also thinks anyone in the room is the Broker, I'll play around with the settings later." Liara smirked before shutting down the channel

The Drone popped up from behind a piece of cover "My manual is ready whenever you have a moment!" Shepard rolled his eyes and entered the room.

* * *

"The Turian Council member's mistress has made some unusual purchases lately, she may be expecting to move to a larger mansion." The info drone, well, droned as Shepard entered the back room, having looked around enough and left Liara to her work. "It's nearly time to repurchase effective caste status on Khar'shan, I have deducted funds to grant you full elite access."

Feron had turned around in his chair in front of his own console and stood up upon seeing who it was "Shepard! Glad you stopped by, we don't get many visitors."

"Take it easy, you've been through a lot." Feron nodded and sat again.

"You're probably right. I never did say thanks for the rescue."

"Liara never gave up on you, Feron, I just helped."

Feron nodded, then leaned one elbow on a knee "I'm still amazed Liara came for me, I'll never forget what either of you did."

"I can log that in the archives or you, sir." The info drone said.

"I see you met the secretary." Feron remarked dryly.

"How are you holding up, Feron?" John was a lot more inclined to be nice now that he knew Feron wasn't a potential rival, not that he wasn't already a paragon before…

"I'm… I'll be alright, wasn't always strapped in that interrogation chair. Drell can mentally escape into old memories, came in handy on the bad days."

"How many times did the Broker hook you up to that thing?"

Feron looked down at the floor, speaking quietly "A lot, it gets fuzzy, he made the guards watch, as an example."

Sure he wasn't a potential rival from Liara's side, but Shepard still wanted to know Feron's side "For two years Liara didn't stop looking for you, you two must have been close."

Feron bowed his head "She's a good friend, better than I deserve." John nodded _Join the club buddy, she's one hell of a lot better than I deserve too._

"What will you do now that you're a free man?"

"I want to help Liara rebuild this place, but after that…" Feron leaned forward and looked up into Shepard's eyes, resulting in both nearly jumping when the info drone sprang up between them.

"Your schedule's getting full, sir, let me synch it to your omni-tool!" IT said cheerily as the two men laughed.

"No thanks, I' fine." Feron said, grinning.

"Looks like you've made a friend." John teased, gesturing to the drone.

Feron snorted "The drone follows everyone, I don't know why the Broker kept it around."

"I'm a shell for a specialized data processing VI custom-built to your specifications, Shadow Broker!" The drone announced proudly.

"It helps coordinate the network's massive information feeds, but it could use a different interface tone."

The drone drew back as if affronted "You deemed my default personality sufficient for your needs, Shadow Broker."

Feron shook his head in exasperation "I wish it would stop calling me that!"

"How did you and Liara both end up looking for my remains?" Shepard asked.

"The Cybran Nation head-hunted me and Liara to steal what was left of you from the Shadow Broker. I was working for the Broker at the time and he was the one to scrape up your remains in the first place."

Shepard frowned "What turned you against the Shadow Broker?"

"He started working for the Collectors, you weren't their first victim. I am… was… an information trader, not a slaver." Feron spoke with absolute conviction.

John nodded "How do you think Liara's doing so far?"

The info drone popped up again "operations are almost fully recovered after a slight dip in efficiency."

"Ever since we repaired the network, Liara's been glued to the archives, I caught her sleeping at her desk more than once." _Damn that's not good,_ Shepard thought "She's busy, but I think she likes it that way." _Ah yes, Maidens do like to be doing things, though most prefer said things to be alive._

Shepard nodded "Take it easy, Feron, and try to get Liara to get enough sleep."

Feron got up and shook Shepard's hand "Thanks, I will, I know how much you mean to Liara and how much she mans to you, go get her."

"Alright, I'll just go see what's over there first, Liara's busy right now."

* * *

John was half-catatonic from the revelations he'd just discovered (i.e. just who Liara's father was) as he walked up to Liara, but the moment she fixed her eyes on his he was suddenly acutely aware of his surroundings, well, not so much his surroundings as her, but still. "How are you doing, Liara?"

"I'm a bit overwhelmed to be honest, The Shadow Broker had more resources than anyone else except probably the Geth Collective and Cybran Nation, here, come on over." She pulled up a chart "He had top-level access to the Turian and Asari governments, and more than one Salarian dalatrass traded intel." Liara looked over to him with the rich blue eyes he remembered only too well "At least I get to share it with you."

"You're not going to turn into a recluse with creepy information on everyone in the galaxy, are you?" John teased.

She took a few steps away from him "I can understand the temptation, I've got all the secrets of Council Space and the Terminus at my fingertips. Give me ten minutes and I could start a war!" She spread her arms grandly, then turned around. "But I've got a purpose, helping you stop the Reapers. That will keep me honest… you know, relatively speaking."

"If you're in over your head, we could just crash this thing and walk away." Shepard leaned on the console, careful not to press anything.

"That's just it, in a way, I feel like I belong here, collecting data on every species… save Coalition Space, we have only a couple infiltrators there, getting in is difficult…" She turned her back to Shepard and the console he was leaning against "Working on my own I was always hunting for leads." She paced back toward Shepard "With the Shadow Broker's resources, it's all about organizing, cataloguing. I've got everything, Shepard, this is a dream job… though the location could be better."

Shepard's brain was already churning furiously, maybe he could persuade her to take it onto a Coalition warship and use the Coalition's quantum communications equipment so they could still stay together during the war… Leaving her here would be too dangerous in his opinion, aboard a 3860 classification Coalition Battleship, on the other hand… "Have you found anything useful yet?"

"The Shadow Broker knew about the Reapers, perhaps that's why he offered to help prove Saren's guilt to the Council." Liara made her way toward one of the stairwells on either side of her massive main console.

John frowned "He didn't want Saren to succeed."

Liara nodded, smiling, before going up the stairs "He also knew that the Collectors were Protheans repurposed to be Harbinger's puppets. There's even some data on the Protheans, I think he knew what was coming and was looking for a way to survive."

John tilted his head, watching Liara for a moment before stepping closer "You know, I didn't come down here just to talk about data."

Liara bowed her head "Look, about the kiss…" She turned away, looking over the room beneath them "We'd just finished the fight. I miss you, but it's been two years." She turned back and crossed her arms over her chest defensively. "I don't want to put pressure on you."

John advanced closer "I've got fond memories of the last time you put pressure on me." Hs brain added: _Not even counting dreams._

Liara smiled "Heh, so do I." _Not even counting dreams_, she thought.

"Why don't you come to the Normandy for drinks?" John suggested, it would be a better setting for him to, if applicable, kow-tow and beg her to take him back and maybe swear to be her slave for the rest of his existence.

Liara paced briefly before answering "I'd like that." _We need to hammer things out, and maybe I'll need to screw him senseless while I'm trying to persuade him that I'm worth the trouble and distance._

John nodded "Good, get your things and come on up!"

Liara nodded "Okay, thanks, I'll be right there, just give me a minute." She walked away with a wide grin on her face, feeling John's eyes watching the back of her head as opposed to the sway she'd put in her hips almost instinctively. She liked how he always showed her respect; it was one of his many, many good qualities.

* * *

_CSC Normandy, Hagalaz, February 13, 3871_

Garrus's words to her were "I'm sick and tired of John moping around thinking you want him to go die in some dark corner of the galaxy and never come into your sight again."

James' message was an addendum to Garrus's as both were working in the Armoury at the moment, debating how Mordin's new fine-tuning of an Aire-au Bolter could potentially be used in an infantry weapon "What really scares me is the impression that if you asked and really meant it, not just a heat of the moment thing, my twin brother would probably do it."

She'd been horrified nearly into tears before Jacob, the third guy in the debate room (despite its formal name of Armoury) told her to "So with that in mind, get up there and claim him as yours, make sure he knows you still want him… make sure you tell EDI to ban Joker from the recording though."

"Don't worry, Ms. T'Soni, I'm using a solid-light hologram with some… toys included to, shall we say, distract Joker at the moment." EDI said from the speakers. "Though… ooh I never thought tactile sensation could be so damn good… I wouldn't recommend you come to the cockpit right now."

"Nice pun EDI." Jacob remarked after a moment of awkward silence.

"Thank you, Mr. Taylor… ooh yeah Jeff right there…" The PA cut leaving all those in the armoury blushing red, purple or blue, depending on species, and James laughing his ass off while turning red.

She next visited Engineering, Tali had been very serious in "I feel like I belong with James, what I could see between you and his twin is much, MUCH stronger, go and mark your territory." The Quarian began pushing Liara on her way out of Engineering.

Ken, Gabby and Jack had been too busy to talk, laughing their asses off at Tali's wording, other than Jack's spluttered "Go fuck his brains out, girl! If he's been holding out on all of us, he's going to have a lot for you." Liara had been quite mortified by that, and left Engineering blushing profusely.

Grunt poking his head out of his rooms when she was waiting for the elevator and yelling "Breed well with my Battlemaster!" before she could escape via elevator didn't help much.

The mess hall meant meeting Chakwas and Gardner, though Liara could have done without seeing them feeding each other like lovesick teenagers. Still, their opinion translated into "John's been missing half of himself for a while, please go fix him." The message was in longer and more eloquent language of course.

The rest of the crew mostly just took one look at her and told her she should get up to talk to Shepard before he killed himself with nerves. They also said some other things about how much Shepard had missed her, and how he'd held out on everyone else, that she was the only woman alive to him, and how if she'd ruined such a fine specimen of male-kind she had better make good use of him.

* * *

_John Shepard's Quarters, CSC Normandy, High orbit over Hagalaz, February 13, 3871_

"Did you enjoy the tour?" John Shepard smiled hopefully.

Liara finished looking around at the fish tank and model ship display "Yes, it's a beautiful ship, the crew ushered me up here, they seemed happy to see me." _That's because they said you've been moping about me for months… I wish I hadn't scared you into not coming to see me again with those terminals…_ Her brain mourned the time they could have spent together as her Shepard, no, he wasn't hers yet, she hadn't marked his resurrected body yet… walked closer "Although they did ask if you and I would be acting scenes from a vid called Vaenia…"

Shepard facepalmed and groaned "Of course he did…"

Liara walked into the office area of the Loft "I also spoke with Doctor Chakwas, I'm glad she's doing well. I brought you something, it took some digging, but I recovered your tags." She presented the package she'd held to Shepard.

John raised his eyebrows before he put the frame on his desk "I thought I'd never see these again."

"You can't get back everything you lose, but sometimes you get lucky." Liara said to his back.

John smiled up at his model ship display before turning his eyes to the face of the woman he loved, the reflection of which he'd smiled at just now "Yeah, that was the plan."

"How are you actually doing, Shepard? I mean really, not what you tell your squad to keep morale up." Liara asked worriedly, taking a step back to give him some space.

"Between you and me? I've got no idea how we're going to do this, I'm doing everything I can to save the Council Races, but…"

"You've done more than most. You and your team destroyed the collectors and walked out alive." Liara said as Shepard paced toward the bedroom area of the loft.

"We fought them in their own base, well, rolled over them, but still, we won, they can't call us young or primitive anymore."

Liara followed him into his room "Young? You know, I'm 108, 109 in a couple of months."

John turned around "I should get you something nice."

Liara sidled up to him "You're alive again, I've got everything I want. So tell me what you want," _I hope it's me…_ part of her brain squealed "if this all ends tomorrow, what happens to us?"

John knew this to be a critical moment, and he clasped Liara's hands in his own. She didn't draw back "What we promised each other before, Liara, marriage, old age, and if at all possible lots of little blue children."

Liara pushed him away playfully. "I don't see why not, you just know exactly the right things to say, don't you?" She planted her hands on his bedside table and looked down at the scorched, battered helmet sitting there, his old helmet, missing a spike, most of the paint scorched off, and badly battered but intact, what had made his resurrection possible. It struck her then, struck her again, the images coming back to her mind with a shudder and tears, her Shepard's body, smashed to a pulp, like hamburger meat, not even humanoid, just crammed into the pod, a mass of shattered bones and half-liquefied flesh. It was a testament to Coalition Marine Armour that, even with most of the protective fields down from Collector beam damage, he could still be brought back. "Goddess… you were dead!" She choked out.

John wasn't quite sure what to say now "I got better."

Liara wanted to wrap her arms around him, to hold him to her and sob, let him comfort her, but she couldn't… depending on him would hurt too much when he was gone again… "This time, but you're going to leave again. When the Reapers finally arrive, you'll dive into the fray." She looked up at the ceiling as if into space before finally clasping John's larger, strong hands in her own. "I spent two years mourning you, so if we're going to try this, I need to know you're always coming back." _Don't make a girl a promise… if you know you can't keep it._ Part of her mind said bleakly.

John frowned "I don't know… that's a pretty big promise to make…"

Liara's hands snaked up his arms as she swayed slightly, looking at him form under lidded eyes "Oh, is it?" She was most likely unconsciously turning on the Ardat-Yakshi charm full blast, but his firewalls could take the lethal part, the rest… It was like people eating puffer fish back before the Quantum Age, if improperly done, it would kill you, if properly prepped, it was a delicacy. He was able to take it without trouble as she suddenly seemed to radiate pheromones that made his gut clench with need and brought him closer.

John leaned closer, her delicious, slightly flowery scent filling his nose and drawing him closer to where her ear was. Asari had folds on the sides of their head that functioned like external ears did in humans after all. "I'd have to have someone special to come back to."

"I'm… open to suggestions." _Yep, and my panties need to be changed, damn, the upgrades even helped you with turning me on, not that you needed help, nice…_

"How about… this?" He pinched her bum and she shivered in surprise at the choice of action and the slight sting of pain.

* * *

A/N: SMUT WARNING!

* * *

Liara pulled away slightly before pushing her lips down on his, opening the Union between them as if it was second nature to her. It was an immersive experience, their minds and souls mingling just as their bodies were about to, memories, emotions, thoughts mingling in a rapturous whole for an eternal moment before separating slightly to enjoy the more physical aspect if their bonding. The Maiden had been surprised at first by how quickly physical sex had grown on her. Undoubtedly the incredible compatibility of human and Asari forms had something to do with that, but it was still a bit surprising how much she wanted, no, needed this…

Feeling something hardening against her lower belly as she pressed her entire body against him… _You're really eager, eh John?_ She thought to him and smiled against his lips as he blushed. She unzipped her dress and let it pool at her feet while he removed his suit jacket.

She started taking his shirt off as she stepped out of the puddle her dress had made, before bending down and discarding it to a chair nearby. "Liara, I've wondered for a while, what happened to make you grow even curvier than before?" John asked, his hands busy helping her strip him.

Liara shrugged "I don't know, but I think it started after our first Union, I've had to change my bra set already" She'd gone from a C to a DD in the past two years, and her hips had filled out more than before, her butt growing a bit rounder but in proportion with everything else except her waistline, which remained as trim as it had been before. It was almost as if her body had been waiting for him to come along before fully maturing on her… _No time to think, Liara, we're finally going to have him again!_ Her rational mind shouted gleefully, which made her doubt the designation of "rational mind"… but that was beside the point.

Their lips met again, blue on pink, opening further this time and tongues freely roaming, purple flesh and pink stroking each other sensuously, thrusting into the other's mouth, as if the mouths were mating first. The bodies they were attached to, now effectively devoid of clothing, were about to do the same as Shepard pushed Liara down to the bed just before he rolled them over, his fingers gliding along her sides and the sensitive skin there, tracing patterns as she eagerly rubbed her lips up and down his length, she groaned. _Goddess, Shepard, so long and thick, it's just like I'd dreamed of that one time…_

She felt Shepard's frown and confusion through the Union, and he asked _What dream?_ He looked up at her with almost hurt-looking, confused eyes as he sucked on her skin, moving down to circle one nipple with gentle, brief applications of pressure, licking the tip of the hardened bud once before leaving it. Liara shuddered at his hot breath drying the pebbled bud and felt her azure start to drip onto Shepard's newly repaired cock.

_Why don't I show you?_ She fed the memory through the bond they shared, taking out the tactile parts and doing a synopsis to cut down on the chances of him losing it too soon. If she was going to clean up his cum, it had better be in the form of digging her fingers into herself as it oozed out of her well-fucked snatch or licking it off his dick, not scooping it off their bellies.

He trembled beneath her, and his member twitched, rubbing up and across her very wet cunt lips, drawing a sharp gasp from her. John Shepard wasn't sure what the hell had happened, but if she had had the same dream… _Liara, I…_

_What is it? Don't stop!_

Shepard went back to his lapping at her pebbled nipples, alternating between the large milky blue mounds stuck in his face. _I don't think it was a normal dream, I saw exactly the same things, hell, I even saw you summoning Hallucinations of me! And THAT'S A PROTOSS HIGH TEMPLAR… or Sentry Drone at least, ability!_

Liara shuddered at the implications, suddenly feeling cold, very cold. She stopped her motions against him, causing him to stop blowing on her nipples and look up at her face of shock. _That's the weirdest thing I've heard in a long time, John…_ She thought to him _If we share a dreamscape through the bond we have, were you the one there… during the years you… were dead… comforting me in my sleep… when I was down?_

"I… I thought that was a series of hallucinations and out-of-place mental images from being dead and resurrected." John spluttered, feeling his testicles trying to crawl back up into his belly at the sudden thought that _MY SOUL was with you even while I was dead and you… on Ilium… blew me off like I was… nothing…_

Liara collapsed onto him, turning her head away from him, though her cheek still rested against his shoulder, and sniffled _That was a mistake, John, a foolish mistake, I wanted vengeance for the time we lost so badly I couldn't see what was right in front of me… After that, I tried contacting you, but it didn't work, then I started wondering if you'd blocked my e-mails… eventually I just wanted you back so badly, but… I felt you going to the Collector Base, John, I had this mental image of you being shot and running toward an impossible jump, I thought I heard you tell me to live life well for you. I didn't know if I could take finding my way back to you, pleading with you to take me back, only to lose you again. I…_

John Shepard was feeling worse with every word of Liara's mental rambling and the wet spot he could feel spreading on his shoulder under her cheek. She was crying her heart out to him, so he did what he had to: Shepard shut Liara up in traditional fashion by lifting her slightly, sliding along under her and planting his lips firmly on hers. She tried pulling away, but he followed her up, pouring his thoughts and emotions into the Union just as she was on her side.

Now sitting up, he clenched his arms around her firmly. Fortunately for him, she didn't opt to use the superior strength of her body to break free, instead melting into him just like he had melted into her with every word of her confessions. "Liara, blame me, I was too scared to go back, I was worried about the mission too much, if you'd decided to finally dump me before I came, I highly doubt I could have made that insane, impossible jump back on the Collector Base. The Reaper would have killed me for sure if you had dumped me, but if that happened, I wouldn't have cared, I would already have been dead inside, deader than the hamburger meat I was two years ago. I was too scared to communicate, we always did that before, but the past two months…"

_Please, John, don't make me think about… you… pulpy mess…_ Liara shuddered as the memory rushed back to her, if she had been warmer, maybe Shepard wouldn't have had to have made that mad jump, and maybe he would have been less distracted and not gotten hurt on the Base… Maybe they could have spent all the time he had since he came back together loving one another as much as they possibly could… She knew it wasn't physical release he needed, he could have gotten that from any of the many willing women that were on the ship. According to some members of the crew i.e. Kelly, almost every woman except Gabby, Chakwas and Tali had wanted him, and he'd held out on them all. He needed someone who could there for him to return to when the job was done… _That sounds remarkably like a Carrier…_ Liara's mind giggled at the image of John hugging an Atlantis-class Aircraft Carrier before a thought popped up of herself actually carrying something: a beautiful Asari baby who was looking around at the world with wide brown eyes.

"Hmm, I wouldn't mind that someday." John said absently, tracing circles and small patterns on her lower back.

Liara frowned down at him, feeling contentment radiating from him "What?"

"You were just thinking about having a baby… my baby." John said with a shit-eating grin.

The frown didn't disappear as she realized the Union had not been broken yet, it seemed their minds were still clinging to each other, much as their bodies were. _How are you so sure it's yours? I only specified brown eyes._ She thought teasingly, though she wasn't sure if the connotation made it through…

It didn't. John's shoulders sagged as he sighed, again feeling his balls trying to crawl up into his belly in a moment of depression. _Yeah, you're right. I shouldn't be so quick to jump to such conclusions regarding you, didn't help us get here, did it? Anyhow, I've no idea what's going to happen anyways._

Liara lifted his chin with a couple fingers before looking into his eyes. _I was only teasing. Eventually, I want a baby, or a number of babies, with you, but not yet, not before the Reaper War is over._ She paused _You're right about the communicating part, by the way… but you do realize that melding is a near-absolute form of communication, right?_

John nodded. _Yeah, I did, and I agree on the timing thing._ The way their bodies were pressed so tightly against each other, as if in a perfect fit, was starting to have its inevitable effect on him again…

Liara smiled as something began to prod her again, growing a little with every heartbeat she could feel through her contact with his chest. _I think some part of you wants practice for when we'll actually be making those babies._

_I'm not so sure, Liara, I don't want to put pressure on you, if you don't feel ready…_ John bit his lip and Liara giggled at his sudden nerves.

_Remember the lines you used back on Hagalaz? I feel the same way, come on, John, we've both grown up since the last time we've actually made love, it's time to reacquaint ourselves with one another… in person, dreams aren't… you… enough for me._ Liara winked before pushing herself up slightly, wiggling her hips to put her Shepard's length in the right place before pushing her hips down. Her eyes rolled back in her head at the feeling of being filled to the brim, feeling his organ enter her, the immense heat from it firing off nerves inside her along the whole length of her vagina and even tickling her cervix tantalizingly. She had a feeling if they were in a different position, he may well push snugly up against her cervix in a perfect fit. The friction along the entire length of her well-lubricated insides as he slowly began moving out of her and back in again was mind-blowing. _Damn, this feels so good it feels like my brain is going to overload, fry and kill me with pleasure, what a way to go that would be…_ She thought, trembling from the delicious invasion of her pussy, which, despite not having been used for quite some time (excluding recent Hallucination-related escapades) had apparently grown slightly as if in preparation for accommodating her Shepard.

John Shepard was in heaven, well, he was in Liara, but that was even better than heaven, or so he decided, with the way she wrapped his cock like a warm loving glove. Her slick insides had somehow grown even more perfect, the ideal temperature for slow sensual lovemaking AND rough, hard fucking. How she'd developed to this extent, he had no idea, but he never wanted this feeling of absolute intimacy between them to end. Their bodies were effectively wrapped around and intruding (tongues and… other things) into one another, moving in sync to pump her pussy on him at the same time as he moved his cock in her dripping love tunnel. He vaguely heard her mental murmur about her brain frying through the haze of lust that surrounded the two and pervaded the room, his lightly tanned body moving in sync with the beautiful blue seductress, or was it demon… atop him. He didn't care, it was Liara here with him, and the moment was perfect, he had even managed to hide his thought (being Cybran, he shunted it to another part of his brain) regarding the fact that if it wasn't for his Cybran firewalls, his brain would be the one frying right now.

After a while of slow lovemaking, Liara needed more. She was hungry for something, and considering she'd eaten beforehand in hopeful preparation for being fucked into the mattress… or maybe the fish tank… she believed it to be Shepard. Now that she understood the lustful dream to be a mental image of this very room, her brain was teeming with possibilities, though she knew Shepard, with his balls being relatively normally coloured and sized, would most likely not have nine orgasms in him.

Shepard sensed his gorgeous blue lover's mental hunger, and smiled to himself, knowing what it was, but keeping the thought to himself. He let her believe it was just her body's need for him, and his smile was from her pushing him down and sticking her breasts—he didn't want to call them tits, they were too perfect and arousing to be termed as such—into his face. Obediently, he sucked way at the milky globes barely dangling in front of him, pulling slightly with his mouth's suction as she worked her hips faster, effectively humping him into the bed as her breathing grew faster. She was close to release, and Ardat-Yakshi would logically be most hungry for the souls of their hapless lovers when they were close to physical orgasm. At least, that's the thought John hid, for now, he'd tell her later when they'd proven there was no danger.

His balls tingled and started feeling a bit tight, damn, he was close too, he'd thought he'd last a lot longer, but… _Hey Liara, I just realized this is technically the second time I've given you my virginity, oh fuck I'm close, keep going…_

Liara was really glad she didn't have to answer with words, since she was panting as she rammed her hips down on him again and again. _I'm really damned close too, pound up faster! In sync with me slamming down on you!_ John merely smiled up at her and slowed down a bit just to tease her. She knew what he wanted to hear, and had no qualms whatsoever about talking dirty to the man she loved with every bit of her being. After all, he loved her just as much if not more, considering his spirit had been there with her even when he had been killed… She shivered at how much love that would require, and how she'd nearly pushed the best thing in her life away, before letting out a whimper as her hips quivered with need, her muscles protesting at the slight slowing of the pace. _Please! I'm begging you to just ream me!_

_Ream you, huh? Well let's see if I can fuck your brain out…_ He started working his hips faster than she had ever thought possible before she noted the slight mass effect field around him, she raised her eyebrows questioningly, to which he answered _I got a copy of Inventive Uses of Mass Effect Fields from Mordin after I discovered that the nodes I've got just aren't enough for combat biotics._

_I'm not complaining…_ Her eyes were slowly rolling up into her head as her body trembled with the speed at which he was working inside her, faster than what a non-biotic would be capable of. If she had been anything less than dripping wet this would probably have hurt, but there was a wet spot on the sheets already from her leakage, so that wasn't' a worry. _It's so fucking good that I feel like I'm about to explode…_ She moaned mentally, gasping for air to process the pleasure thrumming through her even better than it had in the past. Before, when they'd made love, it felt right, perfect, like they were designed to mould together as a single entity. Now… it was so far beyond that it wasn't even funny. Liara wasn't as much afraid of dying as she was of going to heaven without Shepard now, since not even heaven could possibly compare to… this. _Oh Goddess, oh Goddess, here I CUUUUMMMM!_ She screeched mentally, a wail of pleasure escaping from her blue lipstick-covered lips as her body tensed around him, contracting around him tightly, gripping him like a vice which some part of her prayed wasn't painful. That was a very small part indeed, as the rest of her mind was a blank slate too busy exulting in the pleasure that hit her and ripped through her, tearing all conscious thought apart except the pure rapture that was the shared orgasm through the Union and his warm seed spurting into her belly, wracking her cunt muscles in even more contractions as the warm white goo put pressure on even more nerves. It was not a typical occurrence for orgasms to occur at the same moment in time in a Union, so it was a moment to revel in.

John felt a moment of worry as he watched his girlfriend's eyes roll up so far into her head only the whites showed as she climaxed around him, then that worry dispersed as she finally finished, having milked his still stiff prick for every drop of this load. At least, he hope the term "this load" applied.

Liara pulled herself off him and slumped onto her John Shepard's strong chest, nuzzling into him and breathing in his scent as she caught her breath, thinking _Whew, I haven't had an orgasm that strong or that good since…_

_Since the last time we got to really fuck each other senseless?_ John thought to her cockily.

Liara smiled against his chest _Yes… crap, I'm leaking, I'm going to turn over now, okay?_

He sent a mental agreement and she did so, lying against him with her fringe in his face, her back pressed into his front. He stuck out his tongue and licked the ends of the two crest endings that went down the back of her head in the middle and she gasped. _Do you want to add more to what's in there?_ He thought to her, his prick, twitching, slapped her slightly puffy, perfect purple lips a couple times before she moaned assent.

His penis had been repaired and according to Miranda was originally (if Ash hadn't kicked ti too hard back then…), as it was now, supposed to be the long, thick and friendly type in that slight curvatures were doable, as well as many different angles of inclination. Hence once Liara rolled her hips to accommodate, he slid in smoothly, his hands resting on her hips and hers gripping his forearms as he thrust in slowly.

Liara looked down at him sliding into her, inadvertently letting the middle two crest ends slide into John's mouth. She moaned as she felt her crest being stimulated before her eyes widened in shock at the sight of her abdomen (through her cleavage) actually distending just a little bit as if with a baby bump as John slid deeper into her, going slow to see if she was comfortable with this position or not. _Oh fuck, oh fuck…_ her mind chanted as she arched her back even more, desperately wanting more of him in her and to make the incredibly arousing sight even better.

_That's the general idea, Liara._ John teased, earning a giggle and a slap on his arm while he did the work and they shared the fruits of his labour.

Before long, Liara's back stiffened in its high arch, and she made a sound not unlike a death-wail as she clenched around him. Her tongue was almost hanging out her mouth as she watched her belly tremble and try to suppress the large intruder, or rather, the small bulge it made. The bulge merely twitched larger in defiance as her juices soaked him, running down his balls and the crack of her own ass, which reminded her of something… _John, I'm going to clean your cock off and then go get ready for something else._

John frowned…_What would take time for you to get ready for… Oh… that._

Liara's body finally relaxed and she languidly pulled herself off Shepard, he helped her get his cock out from her insides. Then she mentally kept the fluids contained inside her despite her mounting excitement at what was to happen next. The thought of testing how long she could hold her excited juices in before the pressure build-up became such that she climaxed and lost fluid containment made her escape to the bathroom even faster than she would have gone.

John followed her after changing the sheets, watching with lust-darkened eyes as she cleaned her bowels out with water and her mind. His twitching cock, glistening along its entire length with a mix of their juices, was too enticing for her, so she leaned forward and started licking it clean while cleaning her ass and keeping her building pussy juices in. It didn't take long for her to finish the first two tasks, so she decided to have a bit more fun with John in the shower before they moved out.

_Wash us, John, I'll keep the water away from where it really matters with my mind._ She purred mentally, drawing a groan of pleasure from him as he dialled the water to their preferred setting. She nodded at his compliance and drew out the juices she'd been holding in, also with her mind, before slathering his just-cleaned cock in their filthy juices like she would dip a piece of food in sauce.

_Ah yeah Liara, right there… you're a really filthy girl, aren't you?_ John smiled down at her through the effectively invisible barrier she'd projected.

She hummed agreement, looking up at him with big blue eyes and his cock in her mouth. It was an incredible feeling, the soft wet warmth of her mouth wrapped around him, cleaning him of the juices their bodies had produced to show each other their love…

Liara was focusing on the taste and texture of his member now, stroking it forcefully with her tongue and sucking it hard. She decided to push it into her throat to see what it would be like and found the feeling to be quite enticing, revelling in the dirty feeling of trying to swallow his cock like this, trying to pull him further into her, consume him, milk his shaft with her mouth. She found the feeling of her neck stretching slightly to accommodate him strangely enjoyable, just like it had been in the dream they'd apparently shared over light-years of distance. If the image had been so accurate, then they knew each other exquisitely well, and their bond was far beyond anything she'd even dreamed of as a small girl still hooked on fairy-tales…

The was nothing fairy-tale like about his hands suddenly squeezing her head crest lovingly as he jammed his cock all the way into her mouth, a result of a subconscious thrusting forward of his hips into her mouth when he came. His hot goo splattered straight down her esophagus, past where his cock already was, and she could feel her muscles working to push it down just like they were working more out of his cock, further up her digestive tract. Eventually, she found herself needing to breathe and pulled away, having sucked him dry for now… You're still up for more? I guess our dream wasn't a fantasy per se huh?

"I think this next one is going to be the last one tonight, Liara." John said, his voice a bit shaky.

She smiled "Let's make it count then, rinse off before we go get ourselves dirty doing filthy things to each other again." She broker the Union for now and immediately regretted the choice as she felt less than complete, like half pf her was gone, immediately after letting Shepard go.

She leaned her head back on his shoulder as he helped wash her, paying special attention to delicately cleaning her nipples, butt and her well-used azure, tenderly washing her up and stroking her head crest as they stood together, washing each other off and taking a moment to cuddle before their third and last round for the night.

It was a little while before they made it out of the shower, towelling off. John started things this time "So, Liara, now that we're cleaned up, where would you like your first real anal experience with me to be?" He grinned over his shoulder after scanning his suite.

She smiled lewdly, rubbing her once again hardened nipples up against his back as she put her arms around his chest and her head on his shoulder "Other than up my ass, I was thinking against the fish tank."

"Ah, re-enacting our dream, with some changes, right?"

"You're right, John, embrace eternity." Her eyes went dark and John felt the familiar feeling brush up and disintegrate against his firewalls before she seemed to almost flow around him and splay herself against the glass of the fish tank, her rear proudly on display before she held her back door open with a psychic field.

He nearly stumbled over himself in wonder at the precise control she had over her psychic capabilities as he approached, about to let himself in when she let her anus snap shut again _Nope, you have to push in yourself, I gathered some of the lube from my pussy in there already, so come one in… don't worry, your size won't hurt me, I've done it with Hallucinations of you before, it felt like getting ripped in half by sheer pleasure, after the initial penetration._

John groaned as his dick got even harder, before he rested his hands on Liara's hips and pushed forward. Her muscles were fairly relaxed (thanks to her psychic control), so it didn't take too much for him to make it in before her anus constricted after letting the head of his cock in. _Oh my fucking God it feels like a vice in there!_ He mentally yelled as he slid further into Liara's bowels. _A boiling hot, beautiful vice._ His mind added.

Liara was too busy making noises of pleasure as he pushed into her to really notice what he was thinking to her. Her mind was reciting a mantra consisting of "Push deeper! Oh yes! Never stop! This is so much better than Hallucinations of you…" and other such comments as she bore back and forced more of her Shepard into her ass. He sheathed himself in her to the hilt and shuddered, love filling both their minds to the brim as he continued making love to her, pulling out before pushing back in again repeatedly, stimulating nerves Liara never knew existed. Her body felt as if it was on fire with the amount of pleasure boiling through her from her ass and nipples where Shepard's hands were playing with the nubs. She felt as if at any moment now she would tear in half with the pressure building up in her belly, exploding in ecstasy…

John was balls-deep in Liara's ass and gaping slightly in a silent expression of the pleasure that came with having his cock stuck in her tight, wet and muscular organ that regularly contracted around him in rippling waves even while he pumped in and out, moving slowly due to the extreme tightness. _I think I have a very good idea why your ass got even more perfect, Liara, it's for anal sex to be really, really pleasurable for both of us, cushioning and slap-ability._ He thought to her, moans and groans of pleasure filling the air as their flesh slapped together rhythmically, well, more his balls and her dripping pussy, but still…

_Well then I'm very happy my butt has gotten bigger and more grab-able._ Liara breathed mentally, too busy clinging to the glass of the fish tank for dear life as her anus was violated. It was by the man she loved above even her own life, and that made an already pleasurable (from her experiences with summoned Hallucinations of him) sensation almost unbearably good. She felt her legs quivering as she neared her limit, and John felt it too, his dick twitching as he too was near his limit…

She got there first though, just before he would have. Her anal sphincter snapped shut on him, preventing his cum from firing into her, and her back arched far enough to allow him to suck on her neck as she orgasmed, spraying his balls and thighs with her pussy juices as her body spasmed in the throes of ecstasy. Through the bond, she could feel John experiencing similarly unbearable pleasure, but she wasn't in control of her anus at the moment, so she couldn't give him release just yet.

John had a feeling that if he didn't get to paint Liara's insides soon his balls would explode and he'd need to be rushed down to the med bay. Thankfully, her orgasm finished in time to save his testicles from explosive decompression, allowing him to spray her bowels with dollops of his seed while he groaned in pleasure at the final release of the pent-up pressure.

Liara nearly collapsed to the ground, but he managed to barely hold her up with four points of leverage: His right leg, hands and slowly softening member. He managed to get both of them over to the bed, his dick popping out of her as they went, and collapsed onto the bed, both breathing heavily. Final exchanges of pure emotion and soothing presences went through the Union before they snuggled into each others arms, talking sleepily about their future plans, having shared the feelings and such of the two years they missed over the duration of their Union.

John Shepard and Liara T'Soni drifted off to sleep together, bodies, minds and souls intertwined. Neither dreamt that night, because for once, reality was better than any of their dreams ever could be.

* * *

_John Shepard's Quarters, CSC Normandy, High orbit over Hagalaz, February 14, 3871_

Come morning, they enjoyed a conversation over breakfast before resting next to one another again, on the couch this time. They talked for a long time about this new bond they had and the implications, eventually drifting to their sexual life.

"John, I'm going to try something right now, okay?" Liara asked, turning her head in Shepard's lap a little to look at him.

John stroked her crest with a warm, content smile "Of course, love."

Liara grinned before suddenly there were two of her, one standing in front of the couch next to the coffee table and the original still laying in Shepard's lap. The real Liara (John could sense her as real) sat up and said simply "I'm going to try to receive sensory input through the Hallucination, I can direct it with my mind, so, uh, I'll go into the bathroom and close the door, you whisper something to it and I'll see if I can hear it loud and clear, then we can try me ordering it around at range. If it works, we'll be together tonight again, in a way, didn't the Union work like it was meant to in our dream together?"

John nodded "Yeah, it did, alright, let's try this."

Liara smirked before walking off "Alright, let's try this." The Hallucination's blue eyes watched the original walk away before turning back to John.

John leant in once the bathroom door shut, noting how the Hallucination's eyes were following him "I'm really sorry I called you Azure for all those months, if I'd known it meant what it did… I wouldn't have been so rude." He murmured into the Hallucination's ear.

Liara could see everything through the Hallucination's eyes and hear what it could, almost like a holographic RPG with first-person gaming perspective and an incomplete immersion experience. The Hallucination smirked as she did and leaned forward to wrap John in a hug. She mouthed the words "I didn't mind it, once I knew you didn't know, and that you thought it was endearing." The Hallucination actually said them, in perfect imitation of Liara's voice.

John's eyes widened "So this link actually works?"

"We'll have to try it later at long range, but for now, let's test out tactile contact." The Hallucination grabbed John's arm and nodded, reflecting Liara's approving nod to herself "Feels right, now, grab my left breast, I need to calibrate the sensitivity…"

"What?" John looked at the Hallucination askance.

Liara giggled in the bathroom and the Hallucination giggled in front of John "Just do it…" John shrugged and obeyed, gently cupping Liara's Hallucination's left breast with his right hand "ooh! Okay, a bit too high I guess, turning it down, ah, that's better, squeeze it a couple times please."

John complied before squinting at the Hallucination's lust-darkened eyes "You're enjoying this, aren't you?"

The Hallucination, effectively an avatar now of its master, twinkled its eyes "So what if I am? Now, take off your clothes and let's test the Hallucination's internal works."

"You're telling me to have sex with a psionically created copy of you that's an avatar of you and has sensory input linked to you." John deadpanned while the Hallucination's few clothes disappeared with but a thought from the projector. The fake copy of Liara sat on the coffee table and spread her legs enticingly, teasing herself with her fingers and winking at him. "How is it that in the bathroom you have space to achieve such fine control of the Hallucination? Don't you need to mime the actions?"

"Nope, I just need to think and the Hallucination does, now, you ought to do it, my Hallucination, that is, let me test whether or not I got my internal anatomy right, then again, I've got so much experience feeling the pleasure of being wrapped in me from you over the bond that I doubt I failed at that."

"Yeah, the texture of your flesh was pretty accurate to begin with, from what I touched that is." John nodded thoughtfully, noting the strain his dick was undergoing in his boxers. "Why can't I just use fingers?"

Liara's Hallucination clucked impatiently, then stated "I need to feel the whole thing to make sure I got it right, strip." The command left only room for absolute obedience as the Hallucination's hips wiggled, trying to prevent the lubricant Liara's psionics had rendered from leaking out onto the coffee table. "Cock, in me, now." The Hallucination ordered, looking and sounding just like the real thing. Shepard nodded mutely and placed his hands on the Hallucination's warm inner thighs before lifting them a bit and spreading them wider, splaying her flower before him before stopping.

"You sure you want to try this, Liara?"

Liara huffed through her Hallucination and growled "Get into it!" (A/N: Yeah, C&C Renegade slogan I saw somewhere) The Hallucination narrowed its eyes "NOW!"

John recoiled a little, then shook his head and plunged all the way in with one thrust, bringing a pained scream from the Hallucination's lips. He stopped immediately and tensed upon hearing the noise "Liara? Are you okay?"

"Maybe I should have let you go fingers-first, I need to turn down the damned sensitivity…" The Hallucination gritted out before relaxing a bit, gasping for breath "That's better, you can move now…"

Needless to say, after experiencing her first "remote orgasm" Liara yanked John into the bathroom (after dissipating the Hallucination) and had him take her against the wall of the shower. It took a while for them to clean themselves up, even tough it was a relative quickie, there was still after-play and excited (Liara's side) possibilities to talk about. That was before the conversation drifted to more serious topics, including John making sure every communiqué from Liara would reach him and vice versa.

* * *

John's eyes widened as he remembered something as they sat on the couch again after the shower "I just remembered, happy Valentines Day, Liara."

Liara lifted her head from the headrest "Today's Valentines Day?" The holiday had caught on quickly with the Asari, if no one else so far. "I should get you something nice."

John shook his head, pouting childishly, before wrapping his arms around her "I have all I want right here."

Liara smiled tenderly "You're sweet, John, but I really should get going. More intel to collect to help you, you know."

John sighed sadly "I guess…"

Liara got up and went to grab her clothes again from where they'd discarded them the previous night (and a few from this morning). "Someday, it'll be different, we'll be able to be together, I promise John, after the Reaper War, we'll be together for the rest of our lives, Just you and me and however many children we'll have together."

John nodded "Agreed, Liara, thank you for giving me something to think of when I want something to fight for." Once she finished dressing, he pulled her in for a goodbye kiss, full of promise and a bittersweet sort of joy, along with a hidden thought of "You'd better be alive by the end of the war" from both parties.

She peeled herself away from her lover slowly "Thank you, John, for… everything." She walked to the elevator and looked back before the door began to close.

"Come back soon, Liara." The young couple exchanged a nod before the door, which EDI had made extra slow, closed completely. _Crap, I forgot to tell her about her condition… Stupid Shepard, she deserved to know!_ His brain berated itself.

* * *

_Bridge, CSC Normandy, High orbit over Hagalaz, February 14, 3871_

"I wish you'd get me a Valentines Day gift like that sometime." EDI groused,

Joker frowned at his holographic girlfriend "What, die and then get resurrected? Sorry, EDI, but I wouldn't want to put you through that."

"Huh, I guess you're right…"

"Still wish you'd have let me watch the videos though, I could have learned something to use on you." Joker sulked.

"Don't worry, Jeff, you were very good already, just need a little bit more practice…" _You might be able to get me off easily now but after I get used to tactile sensation, especially the feeling of you in me, you'll have to work harder…_

* * *

_Miranda Lawson's Quarters, CSC Normandy, High orbit over Hagalaz, February 14, 3871_

"Hey, Miranda" Jacob strolled in, about to discuss the amount of detail his Shadow Broker dossier contained and the fact that it meant the Broker had enough infiltrators in the Coalition to at least watch a few of its operatives, though it was only their activity over Council Space networks and such, but… She said nothing, merely gaping at the screen "what are you reading?" He leaned in over her shoulder, breathing in the scent of her, a scent he hadn't been near for a long time, since… _WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS?_ "Miranda, was there something you weren't telling me back then?"

Miranda seemed to snap out of her trance "Uh, hi Jacob." She shut down the dossier immediately, but Jacob had seen enough.

"Miss Lawson, if you don't like a guy and would prefer to find someone else via iPartners, you could at least have been honest about it." Jacob said, relatively calmly.

"Jacob I—" Miranda never got to finish.

The black man held up a hand and continued quietly "Instead, you gave him an address and a time after looking at his medical record. I'm not totally stupid, Miss Lawson, I know what that means, and I remember how you didn't let me really touch you again until you dumped me." Jacob's volume dropped, becoming more dangerous-sounding as he rasped harshly "Did you know what I was doing that night you were away screwing the brains out of some random guy who you liked the medical record of?" Miranda was trying to make herself smaller in her seat. "I was busy finalizing the fucking design for a ring!"

Miranda blanched "You mean… that ring the restaurant owner sent after me, claiming it was mine, was…"

"Yes, for the perfect human, perfect Aeon, you can be really damned dense at times…" Jacob realized he was doing something utterly pointless, trying to talk to her about this. "I don't have time for this." He stalked out of the room in a huff and was gone through the elevator before Miranda could get over her shock and go after him.

* * *

_Mess Hall, CSC Normandy, High orbit over Hagalaz, February 14, 3871_

John had finally cleaned up his loft and himself enough to come down to breakfast. The first thing he noted was Jacob sitting at a mess table looking down, very, very down. "Hey, Jacob."

"Hey Commander."

"Just John please, or I'll be looking around for James."

Jacob nodded brusquely "Alright then."

"So what has you down today?" John looked up expectantly from his food.

Jacob shook his head "I don't want to talk about it."

John snorted "Aw come on, I heard your voice coming from Miranda's quarters, even with minimal dampening, it still got through, something must have gone down between you two."

"I figured out why she dumped me. It said so in her Shadow broker dossier, she was reading it looking shocked and I caught a long enough glimpse to figure it out."

John's eyes widened "Oh, that must have…"

"…gone horribly? Yeah it did, turns out she found someone she liked better than me, weeks before she finally dumped me, remember me talking to you about me designing the ring? That night I was finalizing the design, she was out screwing some lucky guy silly in a room on the Citadel somewhere, since we were there on leave… hell, I suggested going to the Citadel in the first place" Jacob started slurring, obviously having taken a bit too much from the bar Kasumi had set up in Forward Port Observation. Oh well, he wasn't on shift (he had nights) so John would let it slide.

"So now you're confused." John concluded.

Jacob snorted "Yeah, as to why the fuck I held out so long just waiting for her. Kasumi was basically eyeing me up as soon as she came on the ship, and she's tried to corner me for a confession session more than once. It's not like I think she's ugly or anything, I like her too, but right now I'm not sure whether I like Miranda more anymore."

John hushed him with a raised hand "You're giving up on Miranda, aren't you? It's about time! If she cheated on you once, then dumped you because she liked the other guy better, you either don't stand a chance or are at risk of being thrown away like trash again because she found a new boy toy. Jacob, I'm all for romance and stuff, but we Cybrans as a whole don't stand for idiocy, as in diehard holdouts. Still, go talk to her sometime before you decide anything, hear her side of the story out. It might reveal some things you never knew."

Jacob snorted into his food "Talk to her? What about? Cheating? I'm not stupid, Shepard, I knew she had a reputation for love them and leave them but to stay with me for a couple years getting my hopes up before tossing me like trash? That's harsh."

"Well, going to talk to her couldn't hurt, could it?"

Jacob glared at John "Yeah it could, just because your own mess turned out good doesn't mean everyone else's will."

John shrugged "Doesn't mean your mess won't, there's no chance unless you take one." (A/N: I just used a line from the iCarly start song, Heh.)

Jacob snorted derisively before the two men fell silent and went back to eating.

* * *

A/N: ARRIVAL IS COMING!

THIS FIC IS NOT YET OVER!


	49. ICs Are Trouble

A/N: Anyone notice how SMALL the Mass Relay in Arrival was? And how SLOW the asteroid was moving? If you watch it closely, it takes it a second to cover something like a few hundred meters judging by the Normandy's size! That means a large megaton-level yield nuke should have sufficed by my kinetic energy calculations. In mine, Mass Relays are one hell of a lot more durable, it would take a Super MAC to one-shot one. Unfortunately, I discovered a Super-MAC was 50-something Gigatons just recently (I once thought it to be teratons in yield…) and found I vastly OP-ed my Yolona Oss Missiles: 200 GT in the Seraphim War, 400 now, probably 500 by the time the Reaper War rolls around, enough to disrupt tectonic activity when hitting on a fault line. AND THAT'S MOSTLY DIRECTED YIELD! Oh, and the blast I think was over-clichéd, so I'm changing it just slightly, it'll still severely disrupt the system and all but… you'll see.

Is it true, what Mastermind 4892 told me? SEVENTY MILLION REAPERS? OMG I'm glad I decided to exaggerate the amount of time Arrival would buy them/then, the Coalition needs to start growing its ships larger, WAY larger, as in, observe Covenant Super Carriers and go like that… or just create a ship with enough resource capability to mount a Yolona Oss without penalizing everything else crushingly. For a weapon with 10 times a Super MAC yield, well, that's gonna take one huge-ass ship.

* * *

Chapter 49: ICs Are Trouble

_CSC Normandy, February 14, 3871_

EDI alerted John to a new development at dinnertime "Incoming transmission from Admiral Steven Hackett, Coalition High Command."

"I have a feeling we won't be decanting you anytime really soon, EDI."

EDI's hologram shrugged "A pity, but on with the message."

She was replaced by a gruff-looking but still relatively young man, Admiral Hackett was something on the order of sixty or so, but that was still young compared to the typical life expectancy. "John, something's come up. The Independent Colonies have recently contacted us regarding a deep-cover agent they have in Batarian Space, Doctor Amanda Kenson. She had recently reported she'd found evidence of an imminent Reaper invasion." The guy who John and James called Uncle Hackett when they were collectively off-duty said seriously.

John frowned "So why call me?"

"Just now I received word the Batarians arrested her, they're holding her in a secret prison outpost on terrorism charges. I need you to get in there and break her out, alive. As a favour to me, I need you going in alone."

"What's Dr. Kenson actually doing out there?"

Hackett shrugged "She's a deep-cover operative, according to the Independent Colonies, we talk with them only when we have to. I'd heard she was investigating rumours of a Reaper Artefact in the system, the last report the ICs got before they called me up for help was that she'd found it."

"What else does the Coalition know about this operative?" John asked.

"Amanda's one of the ICs' top scientists and an agent working in Batarian Space, it's a deadly assignment and she's one of the few they have who are up to the challenge." Hackett stated "She was ex-UEF, knew her back in my cadet days, hell, before that, we went to university together. I don't like the idea of letting an old friend rot away in a Batarian torture camp."

John nodded in understanding "I thought the ICs denied the Reaper threat, this must be some evidence she found…"

"Kenson's team found an artefact in Batarian Space, she believes it to be a Reaper device, proof that they are indeed planning to invade. I've known her for some time, if she says she's got proof, then it'll be worth slapping in the rest of the Galaxy's collective faces." Hackett smirked at the thought.

John chuckled back "Batarians aren't gonna take kindly to the Coalition busting into a secret prison."

Hackett waved it off "They can wave their dicks all they want, all we need to wave around is a Monkeylord's Laser, Mavor barrel, or something like that to make our point. Public opinion is swaying more and more towards crushing the Syndicates utterly with every passing pirate attack on even Council-registered freighters, let alone our stuff or even the ICs' stuff."

Shepard motioned over his shoulder with his head "I have one hell of a squad with me, why can't they help out?"

Hackett shook his head "If the Batarians see a squad of soldiers, they'll kill Kenson. We need stealth, Shepard, and though I'm sure the Master Thief you have with you is suitable, this is a bit more personal than that, your Cybran Heavy Armour is perfectly suited for stealth and power, use it."

John nodded "I'll go save her ass now, I guess, nothing better to do."

Hackett nodded with a grim smile "Thanks, John, here are the coordinates, it's an underground prison, so be careful. When you nab her, bring her back and we'll debrief both of you. Good luck, John."

He smirked "Got it." He did have pretty amazing luck with Liara last night after all.

The Supreme UEF Commander nodded "Hackett out."

* * *

_Aratoht, February 14, 3871, 9:00 PM Normandy Time_

The Restorer dropped John off right at the front door, the T3 AA Gunship, operating under standard Active Camo and Passive Stealth, was effectively invisible and undetectable to the Batarians. He gripped his LBR tightly as he made the jump to the ground, searching his HUD radar for threats, there were quite a few he could pick up inside the prison on longer-range Radar coverage but only one on the Omni coverage.

He moved toward the door and quickly hacked through it. If he'd had to, he would have melted through with his LBR, but he didn't have to. He ran down the hall with Active Camo on (typically it was off because that offered better shield/energy recharge compared to the standard setting of On), then took a detour to the left to take out a hostile there, a Varren that died before it could realize the effectively invisible enemy approaching with dampened footsteps even existed.

This must be where they send prisoners to die… I need to get to Kenson fast. John thought as he QP Packed across the hole in the floor. There were dead Varren all over the place as he ghosted through the facility, he ignored the corpses as he shot another Varren dead before destroying a power relay and noting the security lasers his HUD had picked up. John decided not to use his cloaking and instead head down the side hallway.

Eventually, he came to two guards talking. One was saying "Someone wanted to crash an asteroid into a Mass Relay…"

"We stopped them." The other said dismissively.

"Interrogating that human is a waste of time, easier to just kill her." The first said disdainfully before a Sniper Mode LBR Overcharge shot vaporized his upper body and continued to kill his patrol partner in one shot that Shepard had lined up with assistance from his Active Camo letting him stand there in plain sight.

Inside the building compound again, John heard two more guards talking. "Mass Relays can't be destroyed!" The first was saying.

_Uh, you're wrong, if the Coalition's nanolathing tech can repair superficial damage to Relays that means they can be damaged and thus destroyed._ John thought.

"The humans are willing to do anything just for the hell of it." The other responded.

"We need to make an example of this one, Kenson." The first said before he and his partner disintegrated in similar fashion to the two outside. The third guard in the room was taken down with two LBR Sniper shots at close range, though one would probably have been enough.

A number of credit PDAs salvaged and guards shot later, John finally reached the interrogation chamber Kenson was in. The interrogator had just engaged some sort of device that moved toward a silver-haired (which was odd for UEF people, though quite a number of Aeon had it) woman's head when a LBR Sniper Overcharge completely over-killed his head and left a huge splattering mess on the ground (and a crater in the far wall) and the prisoner, Kenson. She gaped for a moment before asking "Who are you? What are you doing?"

"Dr. Kenson? I'm Commander John Shepard, I'm here to get you out." John started hacking lazily into the console.

"Commander Shepard? I'd heard you were alive, Hackett must have got the message I sent the IC Spec Ops division."

"We're not safe here, can you move?" If she could move more than her mouth then Civilian Armour would hold her and let her fight by neural scanners if need be.

* * *

A/N: Tribute to anyone else who thinks a tortured prisoner breaking a restraining collar like it was nothing with her bare hands is absurd!

* * *

"Yes, now, I just need to get out of this retraining collar, can you help me pry it off?" John reached over and yanked with both hands… until the half of the collar finally budged and flew off, snapped by the sheer strength his armour could muster. Then he pried the other half off, freeing Kenson. "I'm fine, just give me a moment." The woman said, catching her breath.

"We have to go NOW." John growled, shoving a set of Coalition Civilian Armour toward her before helping her put on the plates and letting them fuse together in standard non-compacted configuration.

"If we can find a console, I can hack Security, make us an escape path." Kenson

"We'll find one," Her armour hummed for a moment as it powered up and locked into standard configuration, adjusting slightly to better fit Kenson's frame "let's get moving." She nodded and drew the LSMG and Gauss Pistol that came with the armour kit.

The alarms started to go off and the guards started to converge on them on John's Radar, though few were in Omni coverage. They blasted through six guards using Active Camo to achieve surprise, and came to the relevant console to hack their way out. Kenson called "Guard me while I hack through this."

John groaned, Cybrans had an average advantage over others with hacking, but then again he had better armour and weapons, so… whatever. Three enemies came in from the left, three prison guards. The first went down to a hail of LBR Sniper fire before the other two began firing back with their weak weapons. The only real chance such weapons would have would be in hugely massed numbers, something the guards didn't have.

"The doors need to close, I'm doing that now." John growled at Kenson's idiocy, were all the people of the ICs like this? Damn it, what really mattered were orbital tracking networks and the shuttles! They could hold the line with ease!

"Alright, killing house."

* * *

_Aratoht, February 14, 3871, 9:19 PM Normandy Time_

Shepard chucked a Sonance Grenade at the three guards waiting to ambush them before the shuttle door closed. He smirked as the shuttle took off and the three contacts disappeared with an explosion that shook the shuttle violently.

* * *

_Shuttle leaving Aratoht, February 14, 3871, 9:37 PM Normandy Time_

"Engaging autopilot, we should be well out of their range before they get their security measures unscrambled." Kenson stated mildly, removing her armour and handing it back to John at his outstretched hand.

"You think they'll try to come after us?" John asked.

Kenson nodded "I'm not taking any chances, Batarians don't take kindly to humans who try to destroy their mass relays."

"So the charges against you are true?"

"Well, to be fair, that's about half the story. My people and I were here investigating rumours of Reaper technology out in the fringes of this system."

"You found something." John stated bluntly.

"We found proof the Reapers will be arriving in this system, when they get here, they'll use its Mass Relay to travel throughout the Galaxy. We call it the Alpha Relay, because it's unique in its ability to rotate itself, from here, the Reapers have an excellent staging ground to invade the rest of the galaxy."

"So we'll destroy it."

"Exactly, doing that would slow the Reapers' invasion, at Mass Effect FTL speeds it would take months or years before they got to the next Relay." They looked out toward the Relay in question as Kenson spoke "We and the ICs' leaders came up with 'the Project', a plan to drive a nearby asteroid into the Relay and destroy it before the Reapers could arrive. Of course, the resulting explosion and radiation pulse would probably wipe out all life in the system, along with most of the stuff in the vicinity of the blast." They sat inside the rather primitive (to John) Batarian shuttlecraft.

"Let me talk to the Normandy for a moment." John said through his external speakers. Kenson nodded and he sealed off his suit's sound transmissions, then opened a channel to Joker "Joker, tell Miranda to get the SCU down there and get a Yolona Oss up as fast as possible, then cover major population centers with Athanuhthe shields! Non-mission-threatening resistance by locals is to be ignored!"

Joker nodded "Got it sir, anything else?"

"Track my position, Shepard out." They exchanged a nod before the transmission window shrank down again and Shepard straightened in his seat, re-engaging external speakers. "How did you plan to launch an asteroid into a Mass Relay?"

"Moving an asteroid merely requires thrust and guidance, both of which can be found in Omega's salvage yards." Kenson shrugged. "Get the right amount of power and a VI to guide it, and you can point and shoot."

"I heard according to the 'Galactic Codex'" Both chuckled at his air quotes, since the Galactic Codex was severely short on Coalition information "That Mass Relays are indestructible."

Kenson nodded "We've heard too, but it's because no one wants to find out what'll happen when one blows. We were planning to slam a large asteroid into it at medium-low speed, by our calculations it should be more than enough."

"Is the Project still operational?" Shepard pushed.

Kenson shrugged "Probably, we were one button press away from launch when the Batarians arrested me."

"Why do you think destroying the Mass Relay would destroy the whole system?"

"Mass Relays are the most powerful Mass Effect engines in the known galaxy. Destroying one would be like setting off a small nova, the radiation pulse would kill everything in-system not under multiple layers of shielding, Coalition-grade shielding, not the semi-permeable elastic ones the Council Races use to save energy and ward off actual attacks. This is a remote system, but just over three hundred Batarians live on the colony I was held on, the explosion would kill them all." The radiation pulse would wash around and back toward the planet, most likely, and kill anything alive on its back side too.

She sounded smart, so John asked the obvious question "How were you caught?"

"We've been smuggling starship parts from Omega, thrusters, guidance, an aftermarket zero core, the Batarians thought that looked suspicious. A few days ago I took some of the men out to scout and they pounced on us, they never found our actual base." Kenson smirked at that.

Shepard snorted "Still don't see how you learned of this supposed invasion."

"The evidence came from what we called Object Rho, an artefact we discovered near the Relay itself, among the asteroids. When we get back to Arcturus Station, I'll explain everything and provide all the schematics."

"NO." Shepard stated bluntly "The stakes are too high, if this is as dangerous as you say then I need to see it, and I needed to see it yesterday!" His optics flared bright red instead of their usual near-paint-like shade.

"Guess I can't argue with that…" Kenson opened a comm. channel. "Kenson to Project Base."

"Good to hear your voice, Doctor, you're coming home?"

"Affirmative, and I've got Commander John Shepard with me."

"Shepard? Really?" The traffic controller sounded excited.

"Tidy up the lab, the Commander needs to confirm the Artefact."

"Right, I'll get everything se up for your arrival, Project Base out." The line cut after that.

Kenson sat back in her seat "All set, just sit back and relax, we'll be there in no time."

* * *

_Project Base, February 14, 3871, 11:17 PM Normandy Time_

"Here we are, Commander, welcome to Project Base."

"What's this?" John gestured up at the timer.

"That's our countdown to Arrival, when it hits zero, the Reapers will have come. Just over an hour and counting, puts things in perspective, doesn't it?" Kenson said, almost in awe.

"How do you know that's accurate?" John asked, the half past midnight thing was a bit too cliché for him to believe.

"The artefact's been giving off pulses at a definite rate since we found it, the intervals have been decreasing steadily." Kenson explained. "The artefact is reacting to the Reapers' proximity to the Relay on the other side of this one, when it hits zero, the pulses would be continuous, this Relay would have turned toward Dark Space and took on Primary Relay function, and the Reapers will use it to get here." The nearly reverent tone was a bit unsettling. "If the Relay is destroyed, it could take years for the Reapers to get to another useable relay from wherever they are right now, this is the only primary Relay they can use to get into the Galaxy."

John frowned severely "You're saying the Reapers could be at Earth in two hours? There's no time to waste then." He immediately uploaded the conversation they just had to the Cybran Network flagged as top-level clearance, Priority Zero. It would ensure it reached the vast majority of Cybran citizens within an hour or two.

"The door leads out of the hangar toward our lab area, let's get moving." They shared a nod before running to the door that would lead to the Artefact.

"We have to get the Project moving quickly, our current warships won't stand a chance against the Reapers if they invade in numbers, the only chance we'd have would be fortifying the crap out of every system with Strategic Missile silos, especially Yolona Oss Launchers." Those were notoriously impractical for actual ACU warfare as ACU guns could function as SMD gear, usually. However, for fighting a non-ACU (or Coalition capital ship, all of which were equipped with beefed up SMD silos) based assault, without specially designed Strategic Missile Defence systems, the fast, stealthy, active-camouflaged and absurdly powerful missiles would be effectively perfect.

Kenson nodded and input the lab door access codes "Commander, I give you Object Rho."

"The Reaper Artefact's just sitting here out in the open? Couldn't you have requisitioned the Coalition for at least a Psi-containment field?" Shepard asked, askance.

She ignored him "When we found it, it showed me a vision of the Reapers' arrival."

John was getting more alarmed by the second "Kenson, this is not good…"

Kenson didn't reply directly "Give it a moment, Commander, it'll give you your proof."

* * *

_Project Base, February 14, 3871, 11:21 PM Normandy Time_

John's armour blocked the psychic intrusion easily, showing a PIP window of the image it would have put in his head, the Relay acting as a receiving point for the Reaper Fleet as they massed in the system before rotating to disperse them through the Galaxy. He pretended to fall to his knees and pitch forward onto his arms when Kenson's contact on his Radar suddenly went from friendly green to neutral-hostile orange. He looked over his shoulder to find her pointing a pistol at him, a Mark Two Gauss Pistol, one generation behind his own gear but still packing a good punch. "I can't let you start the Project, Commander, I can't let you stop the Arrival."

He sent her flying with one armoured punch, blood spraying from her broken nose as guards flooded in, taking greater threat priority with their relatively better guns. He ducked behind the tough control console that would have to function as his cover while he killed these fools.

Mark two GLMGs could do a lot of damage. Shepard knew that, hence he resorted to volleying Grenades and firing his LBR constantly, using Overcharge as soon as it was recharged/cooled to eliminate the foes as quickly as possible. It was too dangerous to use his INL here, which meant the YMIR that marched in soon after the firefight started was a major threat, chucking him out of cover with a rocket that broke through his personal shield before he could destroy it with a pair of Sonance Grenades.

The other guards pounced on him with their GLMGs, draining his structural fields alarmingly fast before he ducked behind the wreckage of the YMIR, suddenly thankful for the Mech's _relatively_ tough plating. The bullets were punching small protrusions on his side of the plates, and he turned off even Passive Camo since it was useless and only took away from his shield/field energy recharge rate.

As soon as his Over-shield bubble popped back up he swung around and opened fire again, the bubble collapsing just after his Personal Shields rebooted. That started to weather the damage as he eliminated the last of the guards with a carefully placed Sonance Grenade. Their weapons may have been good, but their armour was still not up to Coalition standards, as the Coalition was a lot tighter with armour than weapons.

The Artefact had charged up and let out a pulse of energy that buffeted John but didn't do anything else… besides knocking out the last guard. John blinked before shrugging and breaking out the far door, knocking out the guards on the other side before shooting them in the head. The guards' radio called for them before Kenson's voice came on the PA. "He's past the Artefact Room! All personnel, get in there now! Secure the Project Control Room and don't let Shepard in!"

John activated Active Stealth and Cloaking, which meant only Omni could pick him up. These guys wouldn't have Omni, so… he ran through the living quarters, tossing grenades into side rooms as he passed, bringing yells of surprise and screams of terror.

"He's tearing us apart down here! We need Omni!" One guard yelled in a room behind Shepard before he was silenced by an Electron Grenade's blast.

"Regroup, God damn it!" Kenson shouted over the PA "Use weapons to pick up on his over-shield!"

John snorted, that wouldn't work if the guards died first and never suspected he was there… He blasted through a Firebat (though this took sticking the guy with a Sonance Grenade BEFORE shooting him multiple times to take him down) before coming face-to-face with two CMC-300s that managed to pop his over-shield and give some real damage to his personal shields before they were obliterated.

The next room was madness with two Marauder armours, two Firebats and five Marine (CMC-300) armours, all purchased from Raider Industries by the Independent Colonies, which operated this Project in the first place. Since INL fire wasn't an option, John was forced to go with the Temporal Fizz Launcher plus LBR combo.

* * *

_Project Base, February 14, 3871, 11:59 PM Normandy Time_

"Welcome to Project control." The VI said.

"I want to activate the Project." John said bluntly, hissing in pain from the three GLMG rounds that had punched through his arms after his structural fields had been battered down, oh, and let's not forget a half-charred leg that had effectively nearly crisped skin. His armour was performing restorative surgery upon it even while the armour's servos kept him standing.

"Warning, activating the Project will result in approximately three hundred and five thousand casualties." The number on the display read 304942 "do you wish to continue?" John hit the ignition button immediately. "Warning: Project activation in progress, collision with Mass Relay imminent, begin evacuation procedures."

John patched his channel to the Normandy "Joker, is Miranda done? I need a pickup, RIGHT THE FUCK NOW!"

"Miranda's almost ready, Shepard, just need another couple minutes before shield coverage is completed, we've got one missile in the silo, other Mass and Energy resources are dedicated to shield-building…"

Joker was cut off by a transmission from Kenson. "Shepard, NO! Do you have any idea what you've done? You leave me no choice, if we can't stop this asteroid, it must be destroyed!"

"Tell me where to find Doctor Amanda Kenson." Shepard demanded of the Project VI

"Doctor Kenson is travelling to the reactor core module." The VI answered before Kenson came back on again.

"An Element Zero core meltdown should do it, because of you, everyone on this rock will be obliterated!" Kenson shouted before cutting the channel.

John snorted "not if I get to you first." He stalked out of the room mechanically, relying on his armour to move him along. He shot the next two guards to get in his way in blazing overkill fury and smashed the door open with one armoured, spiked fist.

"Don't try to stop me, Shepard, I have to do this!" Kenson said, pointing at John.

"Stop this nonsense, Kenson, you don't have to do this, I don't have to kill you." Shepard motioned with his LBR, noting there was a force field in the way, damn it, he'd have to around.

"You're forcing my hand, Shepard, you know that." Kenson turned away, planting her hands on the control console in front of the core "There is no escape, there is no redemption fro what you've done. I will die never having seen the Reapers' blessings." Her head turned around "And you will just die!" She ran off elsewhere. More contacts approached on his Radar as he noted the newest scan results. Their path would let him past, good.

"Damn you, Kenson!" He cursed before springing into action, smashing down and shooting the guards in quick succession before charging by, ignoring the pain of the blackened skin sloughing off his burnt leg as new skin regenerated. He ran into the elevator and jammed the up button before letting his leg rest for a moment as the flesh regenerated under the medi-gel and medical stasis fields preventing gangrene in areas burnt off from circulation. After shooting and limping his way through three more hostiles, He stumbled up to the Cooling Controls "How do I stabilize the core?" He demanded in a rasp from the VI, since the fastest option of healing his leg meant "some" pain, unlike the normal option.

"Automatic safety protocols overridden, please insert Cooling Rod A from this station and Rod B from its station to stabilize the core." The VI said. John pushed the rod in question in before running to a previously locked door and waiting for it to open before punching the guards in the face plates with un-spiked fists (fists are better against flesh or when you want grip, smooth for other targets) and shooting them when they were down.

John hacked through the next door and moved through to battle the Firebat and three Marines inside. It was a long exchange of fire, but in the end superior durability on John's side won. After another long slog and rapidly accumulating injuries (thank the designers for the built-in medical systems), Shepard managed to slam the second cooling rod in and the VI announced "Core meltdown averted, temperature returning to normal."

"I can still override power to the engines, just try to stop me!" Kenson challenged, Shepard snorted in response before starting to hack the last door between them. It opened in short order and he barged in with his LBR-3 levelled.

"Step away from the console, Kenson!" John barked.

"You've ruined everything! I can't hear the whispers anymore!" Kenson screeched.

"Turn around, NOW."

Kenson surprisingly did "You've taken them away from me, I'll never see the Reapers' Arrival. All you had to do was—" She was cut off by a spray of Assault Mode LBR bolts in full auto. As she toppled, some last mental command made her hand twitch and hit the detonator she held.

The Core Room's circuits blew out one by one, the element zero core going cold and dead. A countdown still remained, though, the countdown until containment failed and the core self-destructed. "Fucking hell… Where are the escape shuttles?" Shepard roared toward the VI, wherever it may be listening from.

"Take the lift from this room to the external access, from there go to the communication tower. Remaining shuttles will be on the tower landing pad."

John snorted "Screw that, Joker, be ready to pick me up as soon as I get onto the asteroid's surface, bring the Restorer."

"Got it Commander, The SCU has been parked on the planet and Miranda's back onboard already, the system is in place, we'll just nab you then fire the missiles." Joker reported.

"Great, I'm going now." John called before cutting the channel and hurtling through the hallways at a dead run.

* * *

_Project Base, February 15, 3871, 12:05 AM Normandy Time_

"They left us!" One of the eight guards running after the last shuttle cried, panicking, as Shepard ran out onto the platform. "What the fuck was that for? Come back you assholes!" He waved his fist at the retreating shuttle before seemingly deflating "We're screwed, guys."

"I've got a ride off the rock, scanners say you're clean of indoctrination, want to tag along?" A voice said from behind them, and the eight guards turned quickly before gaping at the smirking face highlighted on the otherwise emotionless mask of the Cybran Heavy Armour that stood there, cradling an LBR-3 in Assault Mode.

"Did you even have to ask?" One of the eight grumbled.

"Well we just have to wait for a few extra minutes until it gets here, speaking of which, let's try this comm. console… Joker, hello? Where's the Restorer?"

A hologram of a Reaper, Harbinger, by the voice, appeared instead "Shepard, you have become an annoyance." It boomed. "You fight against inevitability, dust struggling against cosmic winds. This seems a victory to you, a habitable world sacrificed." John smirked further at that, Harbinger didn't know shit about the power of overlapping shield bubbles, or that they'd deployed them so fast. "But even now, your greatest civilizations are doomed to fall, your leaders will beg to serve us."

John burst out laughing "You think you can win? Dude, even if we couldn't, we'd still fight you, just like we did Sovereign, just like we're fighting you now. You can't win a war if you never win a battle, Harbinger, remember that. However insignificant you may think we are, we will fight you and we will prevail, that's what we do."

"Know that you will die in vain, your time will come, your species will fall. Prepare yourselves for the Arrival." Harbinger's hologram faded away.

Shepard looked up and saw the Restorer coming in for a landing "Anyways, guys… who's for a ride off this damned rock before we toast it?"

"Did you even have to ask?" The guards chorused after a groan.

* * *

_Bridge, CSC Normandy, February 15, 3871, 12:20 AM Normandy Time_

"How are things, Joker?" Grunt, Jedore, Jacob and Legion were watching over the eight guards in the cargo bay right now.

"Shields and fields at full capacity, Yolona Oss ready for launch, three missiles, we're safe here in the shadow of the planet, overlapping Athanuhthe cover established over all major population centers, Athanahs dispatched to smaller population centers along with engineers to wall the occupants in, stop them from fleeing, they'll thank us soon enough." Joker reported. "The Relay's turning around and seems to be powering up though."

"Good, fire one missile through the Relay, one at Object Rho and one at the Alpha Relay, NOW!"

Three small launch streaks appeared from the near side of the planet, leaving behind three layers of shields before zooming up through and out of atmosphere toward the target, their Quantum drives kicking into overdrive now that they had left the atmosphere and interference from it behind, engaging Quantum Jump drive. One reason only three missiles could be fielded in all this time was the huge mass and energy expense that went into making a missile equipped with a Quantum Jump Drive capable of interplanetary ops. They were the length of Corvettes, almost, much larger than normal missiles, and even the huge Yolona Oss launcher could only hold one of these at a time.

The first missile approached and was shot through the relay, on a detonation command that would set it off as soon as it landed right next to the next relay. Error would be negligible as the mass of the missile was far smaller than most warships. The second vaporized the asteroid Project Base had been on before the third smashed into the Mass Relay and detonated. The structure's shielding held… for a few milliseconds as the fabric of space, of matter, annihilated itself in a devastating blast. Much higher, and the Quantum Stabilization fields wouldn't have been enough to prevent a Quantum Depression from starting from the blast, that could have evolved to a full-blown Quantum Storm. Of course, no one wanted to try planet-killing weapons or anything close, since that would start a Quantum Rift, but that was beside the point.

The Relay's outline held for a mere moment before it shattered, the Element Zero core disintegrating and being scattered even before it could fully overload. The blast that would have destroyed or disrupted most of a system instead became a powerful radiation pulse that travelled outward through space. On the colony, the rioting Batarian civilians looked up in shock at the new sun that had appeared momentarily in the skies in awe… awe that was replaced by fear as the radiation wave, strong enough to trigger the shields, smashed down through the atmosphere and against the multiple layers of Athanuhthe shields. Nothing popped, such was the degree of overlap between the shield bubbles, none had enough exposed area to pop, but all were strained nearly to capacity to hold off the deadly radiation.

Outlying villages, with Athanahs providing denser shield coverage, in the form of much smaller radius bubbles, actually fared better… at least, those that stayed inside the bubbles did. Outside, the ground charred and flora and fauna were set alight by the intense infrared radiation heating everything to their flash-points, blasting them apart by evaporating the water in them before they burned. Atmospheric generators began to churn inside the walled compounds, pouring out fresh oxygen so no one would suffocate.

Batarians once trying to break out through the ring of walls turned back, dazed, to head back indoors, realizing exactly what sort of fate they had been saved from. Eventually, the survivors of that Relay's destruction would be among the most vocal in protesting any hostilities toward the Coalition, but that was a matter for another day.

* * *

_Cargo Bay, CSC Normandy, February 15, 3871, 3:00 AM Normandy Time_

Hackett punched his palm in the Cargo Bay of the Normandy, the 1st Executioner Swarm, consisting of four Executioner Clutches, each with four Battlecruisers, six Escort Carriers, two Fleet Carriers and two Battleships, for a total of 16 BCs, 24 ECs, 8 FCs and 8 BBs, had met up with the Normandy immediately after the mission "Sounds like you went through a lot of shit down there, damned ICs… How are you feeling?"

John shrugged "No more visions, if that's what you're asking. Surprised you're here though, Supreme Commander."

Hackett shrugged back "You went out there as a favour to me, among other things, I decided to debrief you in person. That was before the Mass Relay exploded and effectively destroyed a Batarian colony, even though we're evacuating the colonists and reclaiming our deployed tech as we speak. What happened out there, Commander?"

"What intel have you gotten on the mission so far?"

"Just that the 1st Executioner Swarm is currently risking a diplomatic incident with the Citadel evacuating the two hundred fifty thousand surviving Batarian colonists since it would take an eternity for them to get back to Batarian space without the Relay. I'm hoping you can fill me in."

"We've confirmed Kenson's proof the Reapers are coming, destroying the Relay was the only way to stop them. Kenson tried to kill me before I broke out and restarted the engines, then she managed to shut down the Element Zero core, we had already deployed Athanuhthe coverage over major population centers and Athanahs in smaller centers of the colony. Thankfully, it was small enough that we managed to extend shield coverage to most of the population, excluding those who fled the towns in fear before we walled them in."

"You ever get the impression we're too nice to the Batarians?" Hackett asked after a moment.

John nodded "Only every day sir, but those three hundred thousand were mostly civilians, they didn't deserve to die for nothing, and it's not like I didn't leave the prison area uncovered and let the prison guards die."

Hackett sat on a crate in his UEF Medium Armour "You believe the Reaper invasion was really an imminent threat?"

John nodded "No doubt about it, sir, we had literally less than an hour to spare."

"I'm sure all the details are in your report, John." The meeting went informal from there. "I won't lie to you, the Batarians are going to be out for blood for our sending a battle fleet into their space. We don't want war with them."

John gaped "We don't?"

Hackett's still young face smirked "No, the majority consensus in the Coalition has shifted more toward letting the Reapers do the ass-kicking for us before we point and tell what's left of them, the ones we save at the end, 'we told you so'. Still, Shepard, be careful, they'll be out for your head, and you have one Destroyer, not an Executioner Swarm to fight them off with."

"Are we worried at all about war with the Batarians?"

"If the Reapers invade, the Council's gonna need all the help they can get, if we go to war with the Batarians, they might be too stupid to ask for help from us when the Reapers actually invade. We can't let the Reapers have those resources to use against us. That would drag the war on too long, also, it'll be rude to let everyone else get killed." Hackett stated.

"Are we really prepared for a Reaper invasion?" John asked sceptically.

"That's a difficult question, it took two Hunter Squadrons plus the Destiny Ascension to take down Sovereign, and that was one Reaper, the smallest they had. We might be frantically testing out new ship designs and able to multiply our industrial base extremely fast, but it all depends on what sort of numbers the Reapers use in their attacks. Sovereign's sensors couldn't pick up our fully stealthed and cloaked vessels, like the Normandy, until we fired our weapons, most other races would have difficulty picking us up even then. Let's hope the same is true of Reapers other than Sovereign. We might be ready in a few years, but not now. Do whatever you want, Commander, in the meantime, keep the report, I don't need to see it to know you did the right thing." Hackett stepped back onto his own shuttle, another Restorer, and nodded to John "You did a hell of a good thing, Commander."

John nodded "Thank you, sir."

* * *

A/N: Too short to be two chapters.

Chapter 3 of Supreme Balance is up, go read it, since for once I posted a chapter of this fic without the next chapter already being finished.

VOTE BY REVIEW: WHO SHOULD JACOB END UP WITH: MIRANDA OR KASUMI (Personally support Kasumi, but either way we'll get a look at Miranda's reasoning behind certain things)?


	50. Destiny's Way

A/N: Mastermind4892 actually probably inspired this chapter with his ingenious critique, just like one-village-idiot sometimes inspired stuff back when he did long reviews. Remember, long reviews with lots of suggestions (or PM if the content is not appropriate for a review) are good.

HERE BE REVELATIONS! (And later there's smut, after the Revelations).

* * *

Chapter 50: Destiny's Way

_John Shepard's Quarters, CSC Normandy, February 15, 3871_

John sighed as he settled into his bed after the day's work, mostly consisting of talking to the crew, ACU simulator battles, etc. It might not look it, but being highly tensed in an ACU combat simulator for more than five hours straight is tiring at best. He breathed deeply, sighing contentedly into the pillow Liara had used last night, well, the other pillow, other than him, it still smelled like her… He could almost feel her warmth in the back of his mind…

_Almost?_ A slightly amused-sounding, very familiar voice asked with a cute smile associated with it popping into his mind.

Shepard frowned. _Liara? Is that you?_

_Who else would it be? Though, I'm still not entirely sure how we can talk to each other's minds across such a long distance… Tried sending a Hallucination last night but sensed you were… a bit busy, decided it would be better to let you rest and get your strength back._

_Sorry, we had a near brush with a Reaper invasion, I'll tell you about it soon. _He said guiltily _Liara sounded almost like she used to, a bit awkward, cute, and completely adorable_, John's mind mumbled to itself contentedly.

_It's alright, John… wait, so I'm not adorable now?_ Liara gave him the pout and big, cute eyes in his mind.

_I didn't mean that, well, this would be easier face-to-face… but… I think you're more graceful, sexy, lovable, and above all, mine, now._ John's mind trembled in sudden fear as he realized what he'd let slip. Asari were so similar to Aeon in many ways, so if they shared a dislike for possessiveness by males…

_I think the awkwardness has transferred over to you, John._ Liara's presence flowed silkily across his mind. _What do you say we test out my Hallucination capabilities?_

_Liara, after all that psionic exertion in the last couple days, don't you need to rest?_ John asked worriedly.

Liara dismissed it with a reassuring smile. _Don't worry, I still have lots of energy left, though my Hallucinations will only last two hours at a time on a standard charge, found that out by experiment._

John shifted around a little mentally. _Alright, if you're sure… but I want you to cut it off immediately if you feel any fatigue!_

_Don't worry, John… wait, I'm trying to plant the Hallucination, and I'm finding I'm restricted to the area immediately around you, seems I can only project at long range through you… there._ A perfectly rendered image of Liara appeared standing in his quarters _Assuming Direct Control…_ Liara boomed mentally.

"You can hear me, right?" John said to the Hallucination. "That sounded too much like Harbinger for comfort."

It rolled its eyes and spoke "Yep, I can, though I still don't get how in the name of the Goddess I can send a Hallucination through you, I can tell you I did that line on purpose, it's funny the way you nearly gaped in abject horror when I used it."

Shepard looked closely at the Hallucination and wondered why it still felt different, despite the perfect rendering, from the real Liara.

The image shrugged "I don't know, but there was a bit of an empty feeling that I got after I left the Normandy. You just felt so… different, from the Hallucinations of you I'd used before. Still, how the hell can I project like this? I talked to Miranda before leaving the Normandy and though she looked depressed and had tear streaks on her cheeks she still told me long-distance Hallucinations weren't doable for even Protoss High Templar, forget Sentry Drones." The Hallucination was frowning deeply, shifting her stance to a thoughtful one.

"Well maybe it's just a matter of you being more powerful than a High Templar." Shepard supplied.

The image scratched its head crest, making John's hands itch to stroke it, he did really love the texture of Liara's crest in his hands, after all. "The question is, how did I get so powerful?"

John knew this to be the moment of truth, he had to tell her, if she found out from another source… she would probably hate him for hiding it. "Let's sit, we need to talk." He motioned to the couch, and the Hallucination walked over and sat, John settling in a moment later, their arms draped over one another's shoulders instinctively. "Liara, you have three half-sisters, Mirala's one of them. Samara was their mother and Benezia was their father." He took a deep breath while Liara gaped like a fish.

After she finished gaping, Liara started with "Mom never told me anything…" then she pouted and frowned cutely.

John sighed "She didn't want you to know that all three of your half-sisters had the same genetic/medical condition."

Liara's eyes grew wide "What condition?"

John sighed again and ran a hand through his short hair (he's let it grow out a bit since the Saren-hunt) "The same condition you have. I would have died melding with Mirala simply because she's killed so many that way before. I could feel the dark stream of energy being brushed aside by my firewalls. It was the same…" He leaned in closer to the Hallucination that was rooted to the spot. "…As every time we shared a Union."

"Killing by melding…" The image's voice was trembling "But that means…" She looked at John with wide, fearful eyes, trying to push him away. _Save yourself John, don't come near me, it's not worth it!_

John pulled her closer, since she wasn't using her true strength, he could still move her physically (Asari and human females were stronger on average than human males after the Quantum Age began) "They are Ardat-Yakshi, Liara, you are too, and I love you for it." He whispered into her ear-like ridges, despite her futile attempts to push him away. Suddenly, he realized Hallucinations were not nearly as strong as the real thing.

"But… this can't be, no, this can't…" Liara felt like her world had just shattered, the dream of babies with her John Shepard splintering and breaking over her head, cutting her with the shards of a future that could never be…

John pulled the Hallucination to him, knowing Liara could feel the gesture through her link with the image "It's why I added the 'if possible' part when I spoke of lots of little blue children." She was sobbing into his shoulder now, making his heart clench painfully at her pain, he stroked her crest gently as he continued "Your power increases were because first of all, Ardat-Yakshi are born mostly to the most powerful of Asari mating, your parents and Samara were the strongest of their generation, hence you are all quite powerful to begin with. It seems that when an Ardat-Yakshi bonds with someone on a deep level for the first time their powers start growing rapidly to their maximum potential, far above any other psychics known. But when they kill using Union, they lose some of their power. The decrease is larger the more they are emotionally attached to their prey, but any kill results in at least a small loss. That's why Mirala and Samara ended up in a deadlock when they met, neither was stronger than the other. Mirala was a thousand years younger, yet her Ardat-Yakshi power let her match up to Samara, though the decreases from her kills were what made them match up thus. Your powers will stay at roughly this level, excluding the natural increase with your age, as long as you haven't killed me."

Liara let out another muffled sob before shaking her head and pushing away, hard, using a tinge of her powers to move herself away from him without throwing him away from her. "No, John, no, I can't do this, I can't risk hurting you. You deserve someone else, someone better, someone who you can have a family with, and not be at constant risk of death if you forgot to put your firewalls up…" She stood up, backing a couple steps away from John.

John couldn't help but laugh "Cybran firewalls are ALWAYS up, no exceptions." He grew more serious "Liara, I never deserved someone as perfect as you are, never deserved someone I just feel so damned right with, someone who completes me like you do. We've already proven that you're no threat to my life or health, Liara, I love you, just you, no one else, and that's final."

"But what if…" Liara started before falling silent, thinking to herself _Don't be stupid, Liara, you know perfectly well psychic domination can't produce the depths of emotion you felt within him during your last Union. You can't fake the bottomless pool of feelings you have for him either, he's got the same for you. Don't throw away the best thing that's ever happened to your life just because you risk destroying it. He nearly destroyed you when he died, love includes trusting the other person not to destroy you even though they could, and we can't, not really, with his firewalls._

"I can hear your thoughts, you know." John said with a warm smile.

"Oh, sorry, John, I'm… I'm still scared, I don't want to…" Liara wrapped her arms, well, the Hallucinations, but it was effectively the same, around herself and shivered "kill you, what if your firewalls fail?"

John stepped closer before pulling her into his arms again "They won't, they can take a lot more damage than you think, and I can alert you if something's about to happen. I can always pull out of Union if I have to, and I trust you enough to be able to pull out if my firewalls begin to fracture."

_I'm still afraid…_

John shook his head as he looked into her tear-filled blue eyes. _Don't be. We were always meant to be, Miss T'Soni, I believe that, do you?_

"Well… if you'll have me…" The image stood up straighter, nearly matching John's height, and fidgeted a bit.

"I take that's a yes?" John was grinning broadly.

The Hallucination nodded "Well, you're right."

John pulled her closer and they moved back to the couch "Excellent, if you need any further persuasion, imagine all the stuff we can get up to with your abilities."

Liara had a sudden image of using her Hallucination to safely do a standing 69 position, wondering what it would take to make John consent to something so… risky. Dropping Asari on their heads was at best irritating and at worst nearly paralyzing in the sheer pain of crushing a ridge like that. _Hmm, maybe I can implant some subtle suggestions…_ She thought, mentally giggling to herself as possibilities ran by, before realizing something. _Right, he's got firewalls, if I get past those… he'll… best not to think about that._ She shivered slightly in John's arms.

Shepard chuckled, stroking her fringe, smoothing it back a bit, nuzzling her crest and taken a deep breath of her comforting scent (Hallucinations were good enough by definition to trick even Zerg noses, and that took some work, hence tricking his nose wouldn't be an issue). "I wouldn't mind experimenting much, Liara, but with those risky poses, you should consider turning your Hallucination's head crest sensitivity down, it's a lot more painful for Asari to fall on their heads than for a human, I'd think."

Liara smiled, leaning her image's head on John's shoulder "Yeah, and when we're experimenting, I don't want to miscalculate my mass effect and/or psionic fields, had a weird dream about crushing a Batarian's balls once because he poisoned you or something, don't want to hurt you, ever… So that means I have to be nearby, controlling the Hallucination from close range, so I can tailor the effects to be just right instead of crushing…" She looked up, noting John had gone stiff as a plank, and not in a way she'd like to use later.

"Liara, that wasn't a dream, it really happened." John hissed, as if dazed.

Liara's mouth opened and closed several times before she managed to say "What?"

"Liara, the bartender started screaming shortly after I feel unconscious, according to my armour's environmental monitor logs. You…" John frowned as he re-consulted his biometrics records stored in his mind from that day "You used my element zero nodes to do that. You controlled my body for just a moment there… ad my mind… recognized you, blocked out the harmful parts and let the rest through. That doesn't make sense… I was on Omega, you on Ilium, how…"

Liara frowned "I don't know, maybe it's just destiny that we be together? I got weird flashbacks to some human woman who looked like me but with pale skin and brown hair, same eyes though, and she was doing something about saving souls or something. She also had a photo of some guys who looked just like you except with scars and no circuitry." She pushed the mental images into his mind, triggering a mental flash from him, as if remembering a long-forgotten occurrence.

* * *

-FLASHBACK-

_Location: Unknown, Time: Unknown_

"Tali's Battle Group and Liara's ship still haven't reported in!" His twin shouted from his station.

John Shepard punched the console-top in fury before looking up "Damn it…" He turned to the hovering drone beside him, which reminded the current John Shepard of an Oculus Drone (but in blue) a bit too much for comfort "If it were your choice, would you do it?"

The orb looked toward the deck for a moment, as if saddened by his conclusion "There is no choice, we must activate the Array."

"Very well, Spark…" He turned to a different orb "Offensive, Charge up the Array and…" He bit his lip "FIRE IT!"

The other AI looked around at the other members of the command crew before stating "Array charging, firing in ten, nine, eight, seven, six…"

John Shepard's eyes closed and his fists balled, tears seeping out from beneath his eyelids as was true of the entire command crew "I'm so sorry, Liara. I couldn't save you." He whispered to himself before forcing his eyes open.

The AI had continued his countdown "One… firing." On the galaxy map, seven circles began expanding outward from seven points, washing away the angry red of the enemy and what little cool green remained of the once-mighty republic… "All communications arrays in the Milky Way have been fried, no signal from any of the colonies… we've beaten them, but at what cost?"

"I have asked myself that many times." John said, rubbing his face with his hands "Place this entire installation under stasis for the next one hundred Galactic Standard Years, that should be enough to pass any danger period, starting tomorrow. Then, we shall begin the re-seeding process." He turned and marched out of the command station. Entering his quarters, right next to the Command Center, John leant against a wall before collapsing, sitting against the wall and putting his head to his knees, sobbing bitterly over the certain death of his love. James was most likely doing the same across the hall in his own quarters, but for a moment, just a moment, John didn't care what his twin was doing.

-END FLASHBACK-

* * *

_John Shepard's Quarters, CSC Normandy, February 15, 3871_

_That was very weird._ Liara stated after a brief pause.

_Yeah, no kidding, it's like we've been together in our past lives or something similarly fantastical. It's almost as fantastical as the legend of "Commander T'Soni" can be at times._

_It sounded like you fired something that killed me in that flashback, or past life, maybe._ Liara was saying before realizing _Who the hell is Commander T'Soni? The name seems so damned familiar… and not a human name._

_She was an ACU pilot who had supernatural abilities and fought for the Cybran Nation for centuries. She died a sort-of-natural death a hundred and ten years ago using some sort of ability called "Ultimate Wish"._ John snorted at the lame name for a move. _She lived in the Capital City of Procyon, Building 280-281 Apartment 282-82._ John explained _No one has an image of her, we don't even know what species she was, but she was definitely close enough to human for men to hit on her often… and get their asses kicked. People say she usually wore a blue or green dress, and that her hair always matched her dress. She was definitely from off-world, most believe she was from Earth II, a planet much like Earth except with some very odd and very freaky native life-forms that no one except a bunch of back-to-nature colonists wanted to go near. They settled there in the second great expansion of the Earth Empire before it was decided that world was too hazardous to be worth colonizing further. They never saw the Infinite War, nor have there been any reports of a faction originating there. They were in the middle of Cybran Space, so we respected them enough not to intrude._

Liara shivered as fragments of something came back to her at that prompt, despite the soothing contact of Shepard on the ridges of her head crest. _Earth II, sounds familiar, too familiar._

* * *

-FLASHBACK-

_Location: Unknown, Time: Unknown_

"It's over, it's finally over." Liara said hoarsely, her back turned to John so that all he could see was the gaping hole through her chest, the tattered, purple dress she had and the grey, ashen, dead-looking skin that it showed.

"It's alright, Liara, it's alright." John wrapped his arms around her comfortingly.

"No, no it's not…" The vision fuzzed slightly as the weirdly-coloured Liara's shoulders shook "… said I only had until I could get vengeance, I'd been planning to share myself with you that night before they…" She gestured, at the oddly-shaped corpses strewn across the battlefield along with a number of dead humans, vaguely "…came and killed me! I'll never get the chance now…" She turned, and John was shocked by the version of Liara this vision showed. Black eyes with glowing white pupils wept tears of blood, a section of her hair curved down to effectively form a triangle touching the bridge of her nose, three ear-like spikes lined each side of her head like a fringe, and a gash across the dead, cold skin of her throat formed what was almost a second smiling mouth. "…to show you how much…" She gasped and looked down at the same time he did. Her body, dress included, was crumbling to ashes, blowing away with the wind. "…even now that I'm a zombie…" The disintegration was speeding up, though she didn't realize it "I lo—"

Her form literally slipped through his fingers with a sudden gust of wind, cutting her off as a cloud of dust before she could finish, and John Shepard collapsed to the ground, beating it with his fists before grabbing a chainsaw off the ground where he'd dropped it after helping the one he loved get vengeance on her killers. Revving up the blades he began to hack apart the bodies that littered the field, howling in fury…

* * *

_John Shepard's Quarters, CSC Normandy, February 15, 3871_

_Why did we both have the memory of a version of what looked kind of like me being of all things a zombie?_ Liara deadpanned once the vision had passed, scooting her Hallucination away from John Shepard.

_I… I don't know, maybe it's another past life, or something._ John said shakily in his mind. _There's probably more, but I don't think we should look too much into them, we'd probably be very disturbed if we saw all of them._

The Hallucination shivered "Agreed." They sat there, at opposite ends of the couch, for a long time, until Liara finished dealing with the vision and thought of something very important "It does seem like Destiny thinks we should always be together though, after all, assuming we aren't both on drugs, and I doubt we are, right now, we've been together in at least two past lives plus this one. I think that means something, especially how it's ended badly in both… I need some time to think about this."

"Take all the time you need, Liara. I'll be here." John instantly regretted his words, what if she took another two years?_ I doubt I'd survive it, but I'll wait, as long as it takes. I love you, Liara T'Soni, and that'll never change._

The Hallucination nodded slowly. _It has never changed to date, it seems, not for a lot of lifetimes. I love you too, John Shepard, I just need to think on this._ It thought to him before disappearing in a puff of psionic energy.

* * *

A/N: SMUT WARNING, ALL THE WAY DOWN TO THE PREVIEW OF SUPCOM: RECLAIMERS AT THE END OF THIS CHAPTER, IT'S GOT A LOT OF SMUT, ALMOST LIKE THE CHARACTERS ARE VENTING PENT-UP DESIRE, HEH.

FOR THE RECORD, THIS IS PARTLY TO COMPENSATE FOR THE FACT THAT SUPCOM: RECLAIMERS WILL NOT HAVE NEARLY AS MUCH SMUT.

* * *

_James Shepard's Quarters, CSC Normandy, February 16, 3871_

James Shepard woke up with something warm, soft and breathing pressed to his front. He smiled to himself before opening his eyes, suppressing the need to go to the washroom as he looked into the teal-coloured hair of his Quarian lover, breathing in her soothing natural scent. He watched her sleep in peace until the need to use the bathroom became too strong, then carefully moved away and toward said bathroom, moving quietly so as to not disturb her rest. They'd both stayed up late last night working on a copy of the next generation of Coalition warship designs, at least, the version shared over the Cybran Network to only the higher-ranking researchers and Commanders. Needless to say, they'd just gotten out of their clothes and fallen asleep

As he disappeared into the other room, Tali'Zorah vas Normandy rolled over on the bed, reaching over for her lover, making little whimpering noises as she searched blindly with one hand. She was shifting about, frowning in her sleep, when James got back and slipped in next to her again, prompting her to wrap her body around him, three-digit hands and feet wrapping around him and humming contentedly, snuggling into him a little. James grinned contentedly as he watched her sleep. As was now usual, she was sleeping completely nude. In fact, the only reason she wore her helmet around the ship nowadays was because it was fun maintaining an air of secrecy, in reality, she hadn't used her suit for days, the armour being perfectly sufficient and even more comfortable.

Needless to say, he was more than a bit surprised when Tali started making… odd… noises and moving against him, rubbing her body against his. "Mm James, feels so good…" She mumbled, still mostly asleep as she wrapped herself around him much like a koala bear would hug a tree, her still relatively sensitive (compared to most Quarians, about as sensitive as starship hull, but still) skin rubbing against his. She inhaled deeply, humming contentedly at his scent, and started rubbing herself up and down his side until she bumped into a certain appendage that had been the only part of James that had moved, as the rest of him was still in near-shock.

Tali's eyes opened slowly, drowsily as she groped around the appendage in question, shifting her body to straddle James before she really woke up and noticed his look of surprise, along with how his hands were instinctively and unconsciously tracing circular patterns all over her firm lavender breasts. She blushed purple, well, redder than purple, but still, she slumped on him, trapping his hands as she buried her face in his neck "Sorry, don't know what came over me."

"I never said I minded what you were doing, Tali." James smirked suggestively as he pinched her nipples, making her shiver slightly and tighten her thighs around his hips instinctively. "Had a nice dream?"

Tali didn't look up, murmuring her answer into his neck "Yeah… I need to go do my business now, I'll tell you about it when I get back."

James watched her leave, watching the way she ruffled her shoulder-length hair self-consciously and the slight sway of her wide hips and bubble butt as she walked away from him. Once she was finished her business, she noticed how he was watching her approach, trying to keep his eyes to hers but occasionally glancing at her breasts standing proud and firm, hardly even jiggling with each step. Tali giggled, making him blush. "Sorry, I was thinking how they can be so pert and firm when I can knead them in my hands…"

"We have special muscles that relax when we are aroused, acting more like ligaments, but are otherwise constricted." Tali said as she hopped onto the bed "In this case, I am purposely holding them firm, otherwise… with my very pleasant dream, well…" She rocked up and down, her breasts still standing firm until she relaxed the specialized muscles—another odd shared trait between humans, Quarians and Asari apparently— and they started bouncing just slightly, enticingly.

James sat up and watched her attentively with a broad grin "I'd bet the dream was very pleasant, you were doing everything short of humping my leg."

Tali stopped rocking and blushed redder "Uh yeah, about that…"

James brushed some of her hair out of the way and locked his brown eyes onto her softly glowing silver ones "Our shift isn't until later, Tali, we'll have time to act out any fantasy you might come up with…"

Tali looked away from him for a moment, still blushing and reminding him acutely of the typical night elf pose "I was thinking about a nice foot massage… that was moving toward a full body massage." She looked back at him with a naughty twinkle in her eyes.

James appeared pensive for a moment just to draw out the suspense "Hmm, that'll take a while, but we've got time, better get breakfast though, nothing's so much a mood spoiler as loud growling. Do you want breakfast in bed? Putting on the armour just to go down for breakfast is too tedious, I think, especially getting it off afterward."

"Oh, so you only wanted me naked?" Tali teased "Hmm, well, if you want it, you'll have to do the work to make sure I stay that way, including giving my feet the royal treatment." She thought of how, with her father one of the Migrant Fleet's Admiralty Board members, that could be taken literally. A twinge of sadness went through her, Rael was still in rehab on Procyon, the estimated time when he could be safely awakened with no risk at all was February 28, twelve days away, and here she was frolicking about happily with her lover… who'd just left to get breakfast… like nothing had happened.

"_We didn't create this Fleet to be slaves to it! We created the Fleet so we could find a quantum of solace in it, to try to be happy again!"_ Shala had once said that, Tali hadn't believed it at the time but thinking back, it was true, James had said she never thought of what really mattered, the individual was the unit that made the society, not the other way around. He'd told her that she deserved happiness, indeed, last night he had been worried he couldn't give her that. He had worried that when she wanted children he wouldn't be able to give her children of her own, since adoption just wasn't the same…

Tali smiled, picking up James' pillow and burying her face in it, inhaling deeply and letting out a contented hum. It smelled like home. She had wondered why the Fleet had not smelled like home two years ago when she'd returned to it, now she knew that after the weeks they spent talking, laughing and playing together on the old Normandy she'd recognized his scent as the smell of home. It almost frightened her how fast she'd bonded with him, how right it felt, but it was also thrilling at the same time.

The door opened and quiet footfalls approached her, accompanied by the smell of breakfast, a dextro one for her and a levo one for him. She wasn't allergic to levo foods, Quarians generally weren't, but none had been stupid enough to tempt fate "Tali, I don't think suffocating yourself with my pillow is a good way to escape being with me." He sounded amused, and Tali removed the pillow from her face to see his eyes twinkling good-humouredly as he moved the table-thing over her lap from its slot beneath the bed.

"Thanks, James." Tali smiled up at him, slipping on a t-shirt of his for warmth now that her morning arousal had passed, and digging in with gusto as he set the large platter of food before her, it was unrefined Turian cuisine, only edible to her because of the incredible, and unnoticed to her for quite some time, hardening capabilities of her armour. She was truly grateful for the Coalition, it had allowed her to spend all her time in James' quarters outside her suit without fear of death, or even getting really sick, and it had, well, spoiled her with its luxurious warships.

The Normandy II was a four hundred meter long, fifty meter tall and eighty meter wide (granted the primary hull was a bit slimmer) warship, that size would have meant ten thousand or so crewmembers in the Migrant Fleet, or something on the order of one or two thousand for a non-Coalition warship. By contrast, the 3860 Classification Destroyer had SEVEN non-ground-crew members, Joker, EDI, Kelly, Chakwas, Gardner, Ken and Gabby, that was it, there were fifteen ground crew members counting John Shepard, who also served as ship crew, for a total of twenty-two. Most of the decks other than the engineering area near the back of the ship were locked down and inaccessible from the elevator, hell, the only reason they existed was in case a large Marine Contingent needed to be housed or refugees had to be evacuated. All the actual crew members had suites except EDI and Legion, in other words, for Tali, it was a spoiling experience. The armour was more comfortable than her enviro-suit, which said something.

They ate breakfast in relative silence before Tali decided to go off to the shower, still feeling a bit sleepy. When she came back out, James had a few bottles of massage oil suitable for Quarians out and was wearing a broad grin, down to only his boxers. "James, maybe we should save this until later, get to work…"

He smirked, shaking his head "Nah, Ken and Gabby are on-shift right now, it would be rude to walk in on them, besides, with the way your toes were curling last night, with your legs wrapped around me, there's gotta be some tension to work out there." He tugged her gently toward the bed, looking at her with big, sad, innocent-looking eyes, though there was obviously a layer of tender love just under the surface.

Tali let herself get pulled (in reality, she could out-strength him, but she chose not to) over to sit on the bed, James taking a seat on the floor and pulling one of her bare feet into his lap before setting his hands to work. He kneaded the flesh of her long toes with both hands, finding all the right pressure points to relax her almost instinctively. The heat of his palms against the relative cool of her toes was a warm, enveloping feeling that Tali whimpered when it was gone, just before the other foot was given the same treatment and he began working his way up her legs, stroking along the muscles as well as kneading them between his hands, leaving them relaxed and Tali rather happy as he worked up to her thighs, starting on the inside and moving under, lifting her legs slightly as he continued working on his now once again completely nude girlfriend. Being so close, he couldn't help but lean in and take a deep breath of her scent from the thin strip of pubic hair she had. It was another of the uncanny similarities between Quarians and humans.

Tali shivered slightly as he exhaled across her lips, if she hadn't started getting aroused before, she sure was now. But James stayed away after that, moving his hands up before asking her to flip over so he could start working on her back, moving all the way up to her scalp, leaving her feeling like a puddle of lavender goo for him to play with at his leisure. She found she didn't really mind the feeling as much as she had thought she might, after all, they did know each other better than they knew themselves, he had confessed to feeling like he belonged with and to her, and she felt the same with him. Hell, she even found his poking her in the back and his apologies about it cute.

He rolled her utterly relaxed body over with no real effort at all, bringing a groan from Tali when he started brushing his fingertips along her taut belly, avoiding where she wanted him and where he really wanted to be. He moved his hands up to her face and began rubbing all tension out of her facial muscles with gentle strokes of his fingers. Tali was very glad for his five fingers instead of the Quarian three as he ran them over her face and then down her neck to her shoulders, tracing them before navigating around her chest much to her disappointment to move down her belly, ghosting along the skin before lifting away.

Tali opened her eyes and stretched languidly, waggling her assets in the air with her fine motor control "James, I do recall saying something about a full body massage, you missed some spots." She used her most sultry tone on him. "Now come on here and finish the job, big boy, you've got me all excited…"

James was above her, his mouth next to her ear, before she could react "That was the point, love." He whispered huskily into her ear. Tali shivered in excitement as he nipped at her ears, tugging a little on the tips with his teeth as he dropped his body lower, holding himself up on his elbows while his hands started finishing up the work they had missed before, tracing patterns with each individual finger across her lavender flesh as he sucked on the tip of one pointed ear. Tali turned her head to the opposite side to help him, groaning as he moved down her neck, sucking at her sensitive flesh, still very relaxed from the ministrations he'd given it earlier.

He moved lower, hands tracing along her flanks as his tongue left a damp trail down her chest, drawing an infinity symbol across the top of each lavender breast before repeating the motion on the tips, drawing a tiny figure eight with his tongue before lifting his mouth from her areoles. She shifted her hips and closed her leg (the other being trapped under him) around his body at the sudden cold, groaning as her hips instinctively thrust up toward him. James chuckled as he slipped lower and moved his head further down toward the part of her he'd begun getting addicted to as of a week ago, the first time he'd tried it (to great satisfaction from both of them).

He buried his face in her, breathing deeply, trying to fill his lungs up with her scent before he sighed on her, making her tremble and ground her very willing lips into him reflexively. James smiled before pushing his tongue into her, revelling in the sweet taste of his Quarian girlfriend and the way her insides stroked his tongue gleefully.

"So good James, wait, I just thought of something, take off your boxers! I'll help." She used her feet to help him out of his last item of clothing, though he kept his face buried in her crotch, stroking away with his tongue. She actually fumbled a couple times when he started hitting a sensitive spot in her, but eventually she managed to get it off of him.

One of the major benefits of only having three toes was the space between the larger two and their independent mobility. It was perfect for grasping simply shaped items, such as cylinders, between them, though they were not opposable, hence it wasn't a tight grasp, but it was still enough to make her boyfriend gasp as she put into use something she'd been practicing with a small rolling pin. Sure, said pin was of the simple roughly cylindrical variety without handles, but that still said something about James' size.

He smirked up at her lidded silver eyes, brown eyes clouded with lust "You little minx." He redoubled his efforts, putting three fingers into her and curling them as he pumped her sopping wet pussy, keeping eye contact as he wrapped his lips around her clit gently, brushing his tongue slowly, agonizingly, across the tip before he started kissing her cunt like he would her lips, stroking the insides of her lips and into her now slightly opened love tunnel with his tongue, never letting up for even a real moment with his finger work as her toes flanked his cock and pumped it for all it was worth.

Tali was enjoying the way he was fidgeting, his muscles obviously tense, as she worked her foot up and down his shaft. Well, she was enjoying more the feeling of being with him, he seemed to have successfully turned her into a nymphomaniac, every time they joined it felt right, perfect, like they'd always been destined to be together. This time was no different as she yanked his head closer with a hand in his hair, he let out a muffled chuckle that sent vibrations into her and nearly drove her over the edge as he continued his work diligently, cock twitching with every pump her foot gave him. She mentally cursed how damned and relatively inexperienced she still was, it would likely be quite a while before she could "Oh Keelah don't stop, you're gonna make me CUUUUUMMM!" …Do that, have the first orgasm of the exchange, at the same time as James, it would be fun if she could, but it would also be a lot of fun getting there.

James removed his fingers as she tried to clench down on him, just before he sealed his mouth over her opening and rammed his tongue in, his other hand pulling her, pushing her butt so that she was squished into his face. He moved his fingers, still warm and slick with Tali's juices, up and grasping her clit gently in them, rubbing the fluids over the little nub lovingly. There was something else about the way he was sucking her body dry though, it was more a greedy hunger for her nectar than love, though he still kept eye contact as he gulped down the flood she'd unleashed, savouring the taste of her essence sliding down his gullet. His dick was throbbing, reminding him of how her toes had tightened around the base of the shaft when she'd cum and not let go. He gathered the last of her orgasm before getting up, pumping his fingers into her a couple more times as he deliberately swallowed the last mouthful of her juice, a wide smile on his face as he watched her silver eyes watch his throat move.

Tali growled, she needed more, she wanted to feel him in her, filling her up to the brim, shooting his seed into her while she climaxed around him, marking him as hers and her as his. "I want more, James, an in-depth study of my cock-loving body would be nice…" She spread her lips with her own fingers as she scooted back a little on the bed, switching feet again on his massive beef stick as she continued stroking him slowly.

"Hmm, I hope you only love this cock, or you're not getting any of it." James said teasingly as he moved closer, letting her feet fall back to the bed as he crawled up onto the sheets, his body on top of his lavender lover.

Tali smirked "Yep, I only love this one, your cock, now, please make good use of your girlfriend, James Shepard."

James nodded as he rested his tip on her folds "And get her to make good use of me."

Tali leant up a little on her elbows "Yes." She breathed into his ear, and with that, James Shepard pushed forward, pulling Tali's hips toward him and up as he impaled her on him slowly. James knew perfectly well that Tali was sensitive, and he'd sucked up most of her juices just now, so he'd most likely have to go slow at first. He was rather surprised when he encountered minimal resistance, sliding into her slick love canal easily. He moaned into their kiss as she clenched playfully around him before starting to build up a steady rhythm, his hands running over her back as he synched his pace to hers.

Tali was enjoying being loved by her James immensely, letting out moans and groans that were matched on his side into their kiss, their tongues mating just as their bodies did, stroking each other sensuously as he stroked into her and she stroked herself up and down his length. The sex itself was wonderful, his skills allowing him to find her sweet spot and hit it as well as fitting snugly up against her cervix within a few thrusts. His hands were working out tension in her muscles, leaving her a pile of goo for him to play with at his leisure, and their mouths were exploring each other beautifully. But it was the emotional connection between them, the mutual knowledge that they only shared this with each other and would only ever belong to each other, that made this truly special for both of them.

James rolled them over, giving Tali dominance willingly, and she didn't disappoint either of them as she accelerated, his hands now finding their way to her breasts, which were held more or less in place by her muscles, only relaxing enough to be kneaded by his hands, between his fingers. She worked her muscles on him, wanting to feel his warmth spreading in her again, feeling the evidence of their love leaking out of her, until she collected it and fed it to herself. Levo-amino acids didn't harm her, at least, it didn't seem to, so, since the cum tasted so damned good, why the hell should she not savour it?

"I'm close Tali!" James grunted through gritted teeth, feeling his balls constrict slightly.

"I'm close too James, I want your cum in me, please, give me your cum!" Tali found dirty-talking James actually quite fun at times, it felt good to talk to him like that, to know he was the only one she'd ever talk to like that.

"Damn Tali, I was hoping…" He watched her, eyes widening in a look not unlike if he had been shot. Well, he had shot, into her, painting her insides with his sperm. It was an immense heat from the amount of semen he'd given her, much more than an average human or Quarian male would. He'd told her before it was a Shepard family trait, and she liked it, a lot, so much that she followed him right over the edge, their mixed fluids spraying out around him as her muscles put hydraulic pressure on the build-up of juices. She finished climaxing just before she fell forward, splaying her body across his, James kissing her tenderly, pulling out of her, barely softening.

"Want me to clean that off for you?" She asked after they broke apart, enjoying the feeling of being wrapped up in one another's arms, hands tracing patterns on each other's backs.

"Well, it wouldn't hurt… but I was hoping we could give you another climax in the process."

"If I had another one I'd be so relaxed I'd melt and you'd have to take me down to engineering in a bucket." Tali said tiredly.

James frowned, his hands settling around her waist loosely "You sound a bit fatigued, maybe we should forget about it for now."

Tali frowned and reached down to grab him, a few tugs brought him back up to full strength "Nonsense." She looked at him, pulsing her silver eyes mischievously "A good diet will restore my energy." For some reason, it did tend to make her feel better, even though it wasn't dextro-amino. Oh well, that was a matter for another day. He had unleashed the animal part of her, now he'd enjoy the consequences of his actions.

James grasped her by the shoulders and looked into her eyes worriedly "No, really, if you're feeling tired, then we should stop, levo-amino acids won't help you with 'a good diet'."

Tali smiled lazily, he was so lovable, the way he cared for her enough to sacrifice his own pleasure. "Oh I won't be tired as long as that thing is still up, assuming I didn't pass out from pleasure like I did the first time" She slipped out of his grasp by pinning his arms to the bed using her superior female strength to her (and his dick's) advantage "and even then, you have my permission to use my body for your own carnal purposes, just like I'd probably keep riding you if you tried passing out on me" She licked up the shaft once, maintaining eye contact, before continuing "after I check your vitals and such, of course." She leaned forward and pulled his entire length into her throat in one solid thrust of her head and a good yank on his butt.

"So good Tali…" James moaned as she sucked away lovingly, rubbing his balls gently with her slim fingers and occasionally sticking her tongue out under his shaft to touch his nuts. He smoothed back her hair as she sucked him clean and then some, his hands in her hair, carefully giving her a scalp massage almost instinctively. The feelings between them were almost magical, as if something old, something irresistible, had slowly begun to between them since they first met, and was now rising to its full height and power…

* * *

_Hagalaz, February 16, 3871_

Liara T'Soni had spent the whole night sleepless, thinking over the implications of the visions they had experienced together, it seemed so familiar that it could have been an ancient memory, from lifetimes ago. But if their destiny together was like that… for her to die and leave him alone, or for him to kill her and break himself in the process, maybe it wasn't worth… Her rational mind growled at the thought before pouncing on it. _DON'T EVEN GO THERE, LIARA! YOU TWO ARE MEANT TO BE AND THAT'S THAT! WHO'S TO SAY THAT YOU SAW THE ENTIRETY OF THOSE MEMORIES? PERHAPS YOUR PAST LIFE DIDN'T DIE WHEN THE "Array" WAS FIRED? Perhaps the zombie version of you was only after much happiness together? You knew the risks when you fell in love with him, and now that you discovered fate would always have you two together, you get scared? You love him more than you love life, and he feels the same about you! That is enough! No matter what happens, you'll always be with him, even when he was dead, he came to visit, to comfort you, to love you. He can look past your condition, past the fact that you will never be able to bear his children, how few can make that claim? Hell, he can look past death to come back to you as best he could, HOW MANY COULD MAKE THAT CLAIM?_

Her heart cringed at what it knew to be truth (and probably the fact that it felt like her brain was throttling it in fury), before whimpering to her brain _What if I lose control, overwhelm his firewalls and kill him? What if I hurt him again by dying on him again? Or force him to kill me to save the galaxy from the Reapers? If I die, would he still be there, the link between the Council and the Coalition, to save the Council Races?_

Her brain frowned mentally. _We'll all die sooner or later, but both of you deserve some happiness along the way, if we pull out of this relationship now, it will be like you dying on him or him dying on you all over again. No, it'll be better and worse, better, in that both of you can hope the other will find happiness with someone else someday, and worse, in that both of you will regret not being able to be that someone. You know what, I'm wondering if we've got brain and heart backwards…_

After a whole day of mental turmoil and distractedly doing her Shadow Broker work, well, half a day as Feron noticed her distraction by lunchtime and told her she should take the rest of the day off, Liara had made a decision. She would send another Hallucination tonight. After all, it was only the shock and internal debate that had gotten her derailed from the hunger that had been bubbling inside her for John. It was time to get some more of her man, if he wasn't busy saving the galaxy tonight, that is. Damn, she needed some loving, sure, the fucking she got in his quarters was great, and he used good technique, but she'd been too ravenous for him to simply be in her to have really appreciated his technique. She smiled to herself _I didn't realize just how hungry I was until I got a bit of it relieved…_ She opened the link, sensing he wasn't too busybefore sending the message _now I'm hungry for some more love. John, you'd better have a lot in you tonight! I expect at least four loads of your cum!_

His reply was _I hope I can pull it off, baby, but I somehow doubt it… I'll wait for you in my quarters tonight._ There was a mental kiss on the crest before the link faded back to their usual bond. Her only regret was that she didn't know if the hunger was for his love… or for his soul. She prayed for the former, but had watched enough vampire films in the last two years to be freaked out by the similarities of vampires and Ardat-Yakshi. Now that she'd found out she was an A-Y, she was very glad John was totally Ardat-Yakshi proof, or he'd be living and loving in constant fear of the dark eyes and the proverbial fangs in the neck.

* * *

_John Shepard's Quarters, CSC Normandy, February 16, 3871_

_ASSUMING DIRECT CONTROL_ Liara called teasingly, since John looked like he was falling asleep reading the report in front of him instead of waiting for her.

"HARBINGER!" He bolted upright and looked around wildly, his Laser Pistol out and at the ready.

"Relax John, it's just me, you looked a bit sleepy there from all those reports you were face-planting in." Liara's Hallucination smirked from where it stood behind his chair, a fair distance away so he wouldn't hurt himself hitting it (if she turned the sensitivity down, he could have broken his arm on the Hallucination and she'd likely not feel a thing).

"Ah, sorry I overreacted Liara." John scratched the back of his head bashfully. The Hallucination laughed and wrapped her arms and legs around him, jumping up on him and reducing its own mass a little in the process so it wouldn't buffet him too much, locking its lips with his. Liara's image let out a hum of contentment at being close to him again, even if her true self couldn't be there, she could be there in spirit, and it felt good to be close to him again. She asked for entry with her mouth, which he readily granted, his tongue and his lover's Hallucination's tongue stroking each other as they would be doing if he was there in person, finally, she pulled away to let him breathe. "So, have you decided yet?"

"Yes, John, if fate intends for us to be together always and forever, no matter how it ends, then who are we to object?" She pouted up at him cutely, her big blue eyes looking up at him innocently, though the slightly swollen lips and the way her body was pressing into his was far from innocent.

John still frowned as he cradled the back of her head, stroking lightly at the crest he loved so much, his other hand was helping hold her up by the waist. "Liara, I don't want you to settle for someone like me just because you think destiny has it so."

She grinned cattily "Settle? John, I was made for you, we were made for each other, so I wouldn't call that settling. Now come on, we did some wild fucking when we reunited, now I want some sweet tender love, please John?" She used the puppy eyes on him, looking so innocent that John almost felt guilty that it was making him so damned hard and poking Liara's mental projection of herself in the belly every time she moved.

John smiled at that "Alright…" He pulled her a bit closer and closed his lips to hers again, gentler this time, pouring technique into it instead of the hunger that had dominated the last kiss. He walked them over to his bed, sitting down and leaving his hands free to wander over her skin, tracing what her clothes had exposed. He stroked his tongue along one ridge of her crest, the leftmost ridge, all the way to the tip. Liara turned her image's head to give him better access, sighing breathily at the feeling of his hot tongue trailing over her flesh, leaving a cool trail behind it, she shivered when he teased the end with his tongue, flicking across the sensitive tip as she liked it. His hands were brushing across her skin languidly, stroking along her thighs and up her sides while she squirmed a little at him poking her in her belly.

Liara helped John strip her clothes off slowly, his mouth making its way to every bit of exposed flesh almost reverently as she ran her hands over his muscles, not quite huge and bulging like some but still well-defined and attractive with the way they moved under her fingertips. She started sliding her hands under his boxers as he moved his oral ministrations up to her head again, she turned around so that he could suck on her fringe the way he liked. It was both foreplay and after-play for him to suck on her fringe and nibble it, and it was something both of them enjoyed immensely. She ground her butt back into his lap and groaned as he raked his teeth over a particularly pleasurable spot on the back of her skull, his hands palming her breasts, squeezing lightly and pleasurably on what he could grasp, since they were now a bit too big to fully grab. Her pert nipples were sticking into his palm, and he was using the very small electrodes he had there to discharge against her, sending prickles of incredible pleasurable stinging into the Hallucination's body and through her Psi-link into her mind.

Liara was very glad her real body was sitting on the floor of her shower, the walls still dry as she had yet to turn it on, since she, and by association her Hallucination self, was so wet she was starting to trickle along the floor toward the drain. "Hmm yes John, that's so fucking good…" She moaned through her Hallucination, her actual body being in a sleep-like state with her limbs limply holding her up, more or less, seated against the shower wall, only the gentle rise and fall of her chest indicating she was alive. Not even the muscles involved in arching her back during orgasm would get any signals, all the signals would be sent to her image except those that would keep her alive and allow her to cum internally.

"There's something we haven't done in a while." John whispered in her image's ear, well, the ridges on the side of the Asari head that functioned as ears. His hands slid lightly down her belly, feeling the smooth, totally hairless blue skin of his Asari's toned belly move slightly as he ghosted over her flat plain, her muscles rippling in anticipation "How about… this?" He plunged two fingers into her smoothly, slowly touching her clit with the pad of his thumb, careful not to apply too much pressure. His mouth was occupied with the flesh of her slender, delicious-looking neck as she arched her back slightly.

Liara's arms came around his head and pulled him into her pulse point, the gentle biting was better than she'd ever thought it would be. John was certainly less averse to inflicting this sort of pleasurable sort-of-pain than before, since in the past he wouldn't do anything like this that could potentially hurt her. It seemed he'd gotten a bit of a confidence boost after they'd gotten back together, excellent… "Hmm, yeah, John, don't stop!" Her eyes fluttered shut as he began hitting her g-spot with his fingers, curling slightly against it and setting her insides on fire.

"Don't worry, when I'm giving you pleasure, I'd never stop unless I thought of something that could give you even more pleasure." John said, grinning as he left hickeys on the Hallucination's collarbone, using his fingertip electrodes at very low voltages and to extreme effect. "I don't remember when we opened this Union, I think it happened as soon as you declared that we would be together always and forever, well, you didn't quite say it but you basically said the same thing."

"I want to be… with you always… and forever… I meant it… Oh Goddess, John, I'm going to cum soon if you don't let up…" Liara gasped out using her avatar.

John smiled and nuzzled the side of her fringe affectionately before whispering "Then cum, baby, spray my legs with your juices, I want to feel you running down my legs, hear your pleasure, feel you clenching on my fingers." Liara was shuddering by now, her thighs trembling as John sort of held them apart with her straddling his lap.

Liara's avatar's eyes rolled up in her head as she shuddered one last time before her legs clamped shut around his hand, which was still pumping into her spasming insides "Ugh…" She moaned wordlessly, mindlessly, as she gushed onto John's hand gleefully.

Back in her shower on the Shadow Broker Ship, Liara's limp body shuddered slightly before a torrent of her juices boiled out of her and formed a spreading puddle on the floor that followed the rivulet that already ran from her place to the drain. Liara was very glad she'd disabled most of the motor control functions for now, it allowed her a more immersive experience with John through her avatar.

When she came down from her high, Liara turned around languidly and smiled, looking down at the huge cock of her boyfriend, which was literally throbbing for attention, before lifting herself up and rubbing the shaft up and down her sopping wet slit a few times, then moving off the bed to kneel before her John. She played with her own breasts for a few seconds with her hands as she watched his dick pulse greedily, feeling a fresh wave of arousal sweeping her mind with every jerk the organ gave. The movements of her John's beef stick matched up to the breathy groans she was making as she pinched her nipples in front of him, she couldn't take it anymore "Touch yourself John." She ordered before changing it to a request "I want to see you touching yourself."

John nodded, fixing her rich blue eyes with his own brown ones as he felt the pleasure from her and himself mix over the Union just as it had been mixing since the Union began "Alright, Liara, what about you?" He questioned as he began to stroke himself to his nude girlfriend's avatar playing with herself.

"I was thinking I could test my mind's Hallucination-altering capabilities, oh, and I could play with myself while watching you." Liara said playfully as she pulled some of the spare sheets off the shelves to make a love nest of sorts on the ground next to the huge bed. She laid back on the floor, rubbing her pussy with one hand while roughly grabbing and slapping her breasts around with her mental powers, the other hand of the avatar grabbing a handful of the sheets as she moaned, never looking away from John, alternating her lustful gaze between his eyes and his throbbing dick. She decided to modify her own appearance a bit, and decided to add a few tattoos on her arms, amazingly, it worked, but she could sense from John that his opinion wasn't so great. Sure, he had been thinking _No matter what you do you'll always be perfect to me Liara_, but that only meant his opinion of her natural form was better than perfect…

_You're right, my whole standard of what beauty is and what it's about seems to have shifted since we met to mould to you, only you._ John Shepard couldn't help but tell her what he'd been thinking. It was as if there was a compulsion making him confess to her every little thing about himself.

_That's sweet John._ She smiled before she began feeling another orgasm begin to build inside her as her avatar stroked itself. _I want you to paint me, I want you to throw ropes of your delicious white jizz over my body, decorate me and mark me as yours just as I've marked you as mine…_ Liara growled sultrily in their mind, looking at him through the lidded eyes of her avatar before the other hand moved down and stuck two fingers into the completely clean anus of the Hallucination. She fingered her pussy and ass simultaneously, watching her boyfriend stroke himself faster as she rolled her head from side to side in pleasure, her legs splayed wide for him to see every detail of her glistening fingers pumping her insides. Her natural lubricant was running down from her cunt to her anus where it was fed into her avatar's bowels by the same avatar's psychic fingers. She moaned and mewled almost continuously as she watched John's cock seem to grow purple, feeling that he was close with their linked minds. Her body was getting even more excited, waiting to receive the no doubt explosive ejaculation of his seed, and she started panting as she stared at his now literally pulsing purple member.

That was just before it erupted, crossing the distance straight to her forehead, the rest of that long rope trailing down to her pussy in a perfect straight line down her body, unintentionally drawing a line that would divide her image in half. The next few shots left more lines up her body, a body that was convulsing in pleasure as she climaxed, brought on by the feeling of his orgasm through the link coupled with his sperm splattering onto her skin.

After they'd both settled and she'd cleaned his cum form her lithe body, she sashayed up to her John Shepard and knelt before him, taking his still-hard member into her mouth, sucking off what little cum remained clinging to the tip, just before wrapping her now fully matured, rather large bust around the still proudly erect beef stick and setting to work.

_Damn that's good Liara…_

_You really like my big tits wrapped around your cock don't you?_ She looked up at him innocently as she moved up and down in sync with his subconscious thrusting motions, moaning at the feeling of his long hard heat pressed between her milky orbs. _I love your cock between my tits…_ She maintained eye contact even while she licked away at the head of his penis.

_They're too beautiful to be called tits in my opinion, Liara._ John thought to her, moaning as he stroked her fringe, his other hand helping hold himself up.

_That's sweet, John._ She smiled, wrapping the head of his cock in her lips while she continued rubbing the shaft between her breasts, still keeping up with the innocent eyes.

_Liara, your eyes… they look so innocent it almost makes me feel guilty about doing this to you…_ John groaned mentally in pleasure at the smooth skin of his lover wrapped around him.

Liara frowned, looking up with a sort of hurt in her rich blue orbs. _I can stop if it'll help._

_No, that's just the problem, it makes me even harder than normal, it makes it feel kind of wrong but right at the same time…_ John grunted back.

_Oh, so you like ravishing little me, huh?_ She smiled around his cock as she felt him start twitching slightly. _You enjoy me suckling away at your cock, don't you? You want to spray your cum onto my innocent face, don't you?_

_Liara, you're going to make me cum if you keep dirty-talking like that…_ John growled mentally, pulling her back a little, his cock leaving her mouth with a soft pop, purple and pulsing with how close he was.

_Ah, pulling me off you so you can give me a facial… please, John, mark me, mark me with the delicious cum you squirt…_ Liara kept her head tilted down and closed her eyes, feeling John's dick pulse between her breasts as she pointed the organ at her face, opening her mouth slightly as she felt his hot seed splash onto her face in great dollops. She shuddered and moaned as she felt fresh arousal course through her, more of her natural lubricant trickling down her legs. Sure, it wouldn't leave any stains, being only a psychic manifestation, but it still felt so real… Enough thinking about the fact that she was using a Hallucination to do this, and the fact that the avatar would more than likely have to drop off all of John's cum it had swallowed afterward, it was time to feel him inside her again…

She pulled herself up his body and nuzzled him affectionately before planting a sensuous kiss on his lips "Up for more?" She wiggled her eager nether lips against his tip teasingly while giving him the best innocent eyes she could muster given her lust.

"Just a moment, Liara, give me time to catch my breath, I can't keep up with a Hallucination that can't feel fatigue…" John said, ruffling her crest, well, it couldn't be ruffled, but the same general idea held true. "There, feel free to begin at any time."

Liara smirked, before rolling off him and putting her legs up, as she laid on her back on the bed in a classic anvil position, blinking up at him with wide, lust-filled eyes "I think we should do a pose where you get to do the work this time, like this one." She batted her eyes and made a come hither motion with her fingers.

John didn't need asking twice, coming over to rest his elbows on either side of her body, letting his hands set to work on her massive breasts while he kissed her and pushed in slowly. That was just before Liara took control using her psychic powers, literally pulling him in before pushing him back out at medium-high speed. She only had to do one thrust (and a wink with a sultry smile) for him to get the idea and settle into a steady, fairly fast rhythm instead of his usual building speed technique, but he was very adaptable. He kept up the steady assault on her breasts, the smooth plain of her belly, and her head and neck as he thrust against his eager girlfriend. They were sharing every gram of the pleasure they extracted from each other's bodies as well as an emotional bond words had tried and would try for millennia to describe.

Liara clenched down on him first, his persistent attack overwhelming her and sweeping her away in a haze of lust, love and desire. She sighed happily as she planted a suggestion that had John pulling her off the bed before turning her over and taking her from behind, plunging into her soaking cunt over and over, bringing her pleasure she had never dreamed of before they met. He was most certainly the most skilled lover she had heard of, hands and mouth seemingly being everywhere at once on her body, stimulating all her nerves in every moment, all the while keeping up a steady pounding on her g-spot, which he'd found using the pleasure shared over the Union. She kept thrusting back against his pelvis though, and soon she felt the satisfying feeling of him pumping more of his seed into her, and she collapsed, her breasts holding her up against the bed as she groaned happily, feeling his heat fill her to the brim.

_Liara, are you okay?_ He asked instinctively when his girlfriend's Hallucination avatar went limp.

_I'm great John, just enjoying the feeling of you and your warm cum buried in me…_ She said contentedly, drowsily.

John grinned at her response. _That's great, because I wasn't done._

"You're not?" The avatar's eyes opened wide as she felt his cock jerk proudly inside her, answering her question. "Alright, let's stick that in my other hole now!" She said excitedly as he pulled out of her. "How do you want to do my ass?" She was willing to comply with any suggestion of his right now, since she knew very well he'd come up with something intensely pleasurable fro both of them.

_Get on all fours, Liara, I'm going to take you doggy style…_ She shivered in excitement at the predatory tone she'd managed to lure out of her man. It was fun to see how far you could push a male before their evolutionary domineering side took over, despite males being physically no longer as strong as females nowadays, it was still fun.

And of course, him pushing into the Hallucination's rear door was an interesting feeling, especially as she could adjust the tightness of said rear door, and unlike her real body it didn't have to be cleaned out with water right before they went at it. Like reality, though, she had to consciously move the lubricant from her pussy into it to make it a comfortable, snug and incredibly pleasurable experience for both of them. Her arms felt wobbly, so she put her shoulders down to the bed, turning her head and vocalizing her pleasure by way of loud moaning.

He moved in and out slowly, filling her to the brim with his huge meaty shaft. Liara felt like she was being torn apart by sheer pleasure, as was usual when they went with anal sex. The fact that he was ministering to her fringes gently and lovingly with his hands as he slowly pumped in and out didn't help her impression that she would die of sheer pleasure from the bond and pleasure they were sharing. The Union was letting her feel the pleasure of being wrapped in a tight, hot, slick vice as well as the feeling of having his huge cock inside her tighter orifice, spreading her insides wide open with his hot rod. It was an amazing feeling, different from the pleasure of vaginal sex but neither superior nor inferior. The feeling of his hips bumping against her rump on each thrust in was very satisfying, and so was the nerves he was stimulating…

"Too tight, I'm gonna cum Liara!" John gritted out.

"Cum with me…" Liara's avatar panted "fill my filthy asshole with your seed!" She paused in her encouragement as she felt him grow impossibly larger within her and herself near the edge of the precipice. She looked back at him with wide, faux-vulnerable eyes. _If you paint my bowels, you'll have marked all my holes, all of me as your territory and yours alone…_

_Damn, don't appeal to my animalistic side like that, Liara, I can't hold it any longer…_ John growled, she gripped him so tightly and milked him so hard that he couldn't help but shoot everything he had left into her ass. She wailed in pleasure as he filled her last hole up, before being cut off in a soundless scream of orgasm as her anus clamped down on him about three-quarters of the way through his own climax. _AAH! So… tight, feel like my balls are going to… explode…_

Liara suddenly realized her lover's discomfort, and apologized mentally while spraying his thighs with her fluids _Damn, I can't control my muscles right now, but it'll be even better for you when I finally relax…_

He kissed her shoulder blades, since he couldn't reach her crest effectively right now, grimacing in discomfort he thought to her: _It's alright, I can deal with it… there…_Her ass had just relaxed enough for him to shoot two more shots, one more than he'd expected, into her guts. He was beginning to soften slightly as he pulled out. _Damn, I'm done for tonight, Liara, sorry._ He collapsed onto the bed next to her.

Liara rolled her avatar over to face her lover with a content, somewhat sleepy smile "Don't worry, John, it was a wonderful experience, we can do this whenever we need one another and we're not near each other in the future. I love you John… give me a moment to clean up and I'll be right back." The Hallucination seemed to almost fall dormant, without new commands other than to pretend to be asleep.

* * *

On her own ship, Liara had washed herself clean of all the juices she'd put out, only wishing she could have recovered all the cum John had expended tonight. Still, she hurriedly washed herself off before changing into her sleeping clothes and clamouring into her bed before pulling enough sheets over herself to not catch cold. Then, she resumed the link to her avatar, noting there were only minutes left before this charge was exhausted, she infused more psychic energy to keep it going.

* * *

Before the Hallucination "woke up" again i.e. Liara took direct control, John had gone to take a drink and use the bathroom. Now, Liara was talking about regretting the fact that she couldn't actually be there in the flesh, and John reassuring her about it, when she thought of something "John, since I have two High Templar abilities and one Arbiter ability, Stasis Field, already, plus a Dark Archon ability, Mind Control, aka Dominate, do you think I could use Feedback, Maelstrom, or Recall?"

John shrugged, nuzzling the back of her head and the two ridge tips there affectionately, inhaling her scent and making Liara squirm a little at the ticklish feeling of his breath on it "Don't know, maybe, but don't push yourself when you try it, Liara." He said, a bit muffled by her head.

"What I'm really interested in is… Recall, maybe I could actually put all the cum you shot in this Hallucination to good use, I'd hate to see such a treasure trove of a cum dump go to waste."

Shepard tightened his hold on her just a little, giving her a sense of him being overprotective "I don't like anyone referring to you or any image of you as a 'cum dump', it just doesn't feel right, you're too good to be referred to as that."

Liara looked back over her shoulder "Not even when we're dirty-talking each other in the future? It sounds like a fun term if we decide to try bondage sometime…"

John frowned and moved over her to face her "I hope you're not asking me to hurt you, Liara."

"No, I'm just talking about the tying-up variety, and maybe some light-duty nipple clamps."

John pouted "But I like your perfectly round nipples…" He slipped down and sucked on one for a few moments before releasing it from his mouth with a pop. Liara watched him with a sleepy, content smile on her face. "Nipple clamps would distend them, and they'd be much less fun to suck."

"You'd think you were a kid who was about to lose one of his favourite toys, well, in the case of these Hallucinations, sex toys." Liara giggled quietly.

"Ah, you mean use a Hallucination for bondage? I don't know… did you just refer to yourself as a sex toy? Liara, you know I—"

She shushed him with a slender blue finger "Shush John, of course I know you'd never think of me that way, it's one of the reasons I love you so much."

John kissed the finger before moving back up to her eye level "I love you too Liara."

"So…" Liara's avatar yawned just like the real Liara was doing tens of thousands of light-years away "What do you think about trying to Recall your cum so that I can get a night time snack? The Shadow Broker Ship doesn't stock snacks like you do…"

"Sure, I'll ask Joker to lower the Teleport Barrier for the Recall." Shepard turned toward his gauntlet on his nightstand and activated its holoprojector and computer module "Joker, lower the Teleport Barrier for two minutes starting thirty seconds from now, Liara's going to try to Recall an item from my room."

"Alright Commander." Joker acknowledged. "Barrier is down, please proceed."

The Hallucination sat up at the same time as its owner did, neither noticing John still held onto the Hallucination's hand "Activating Recall in five, four, three, two, one…"

There was a momentary flash of light before the room fell dark again. Joker's voice came through the gauntlet projector "Commander, Commander? Damn it, EDI, plot a course to Hagalaz, I think Liara needs to work on her Recall technique a bit more…"

* * *

_Hagalaz, February 16, 3871_

Liara gaped at John and her avatar, both of whom had appeared in her room, linked by John's hand on her avatar's wrist. She groaned and facepalmed "I should have warned you, any living entity along with recognized armour and equipment will be brought along with the target for a singular Recall…"

"You managed to recall both me and the Hallucination this far, wow, Liara…" John was in awe of exactly how powerful his lover was.

"Yeah, better contact the Normandy to tell them where you are…" Liara climbed out of bed…

… Just in time for Feron to call in "Liara, we have a transmission from the CSC Normandy, apparently you kidnapped their Commander for what this EDI person calls a 'midnight snack'…"

"EDI!" John yelled in outrage.

"It's alright, John." Liara patted her lover on the shoulder "Feron, contact the Normandy and tell them to come pick him up in forty-five minutes, we have a lot to discuss." She closed the channel.

"Uh, Liara, do you have any clothes that will fit me?" John was looking around, holding her sheet around his body.

"Probably, but first things first, the Hallucination isn't quite the same as the real thing, is it?" She dissipated the Hallucination to leave all the cum John had shot that night hovering there before she formed it into a ball and summoned a psychic straw before beginning to enjoy her night time snack. Soon enough, the ball was gone and Liara smacked her lips at John's dumbstruck expression "Very refreshing, eh John?" She sashayed over to him, pinning him against the wall.

"Uh, I don't think I can go for any more tonight, Liara." John said nervously, scared he'd disappoint her.

She read his mind, more or less "I'm not disappointed, John, it's that you've been so kind in providing refreshments for me that it would be rude of me not to compensate you… and it's just too bad that I let all my juices earlier run off down the drain… I guess you'll just have to get more from the source, hmm?" The nightgown slid from her shoulders after that, revealing her huge breasts bouncing slightly under her muscle control, her toned abdomen, slender waist, bountiful hips, bubble butt, strong legs and the perfect purple lips nestled between said legs in one fell swoop. John gulped, and Liara smiled, before she leaned in and kissed him, pulling him with her toward the bed, where she sat with her legs spread wide, looking up at him innocently and smirking "Drink your fill, my love." Her rich blue eyes turned dark with the beginning of the Union.

_It would be rude of me to decline your sweet nectar baby._ John replied as he moved down her beautiful blue body, hands leading before his mouth moved over in a meandering path over her smooth blue skin. His fingers reached their destination before his tongue, and he sampled her offer off his fingers with a lazy smile. _It is as good as I remembered, how much can I drink?_

She smiled back _As much as I have to offer you._

John's smile became a broad grin as he knelt between her legs "Wonderful." He said just before dipping his tongue into her navel and moving further down to her mound and the lips near the bottom of the mound. He traced an infinity symbol with his tongue on her smooth blue skin before moving down to her purple, slightly puffy lips, looking up at her lidded eyes before diving in with mouth and fingers.

After he'd had his own hard-won midnight snack, John stayed the night, as according to Jedore on the Restorer that had docked to the ship "Nothing needs you up there anyways, might as well break in your girlfriend's private bed for once."

That had been in the morning, three orgasms from Liara and two from John passed before John had to go back to the Normandy. Liara's warning had been "Next time I recall a Hallucination loaded with your gifts, don't touch it when it's teleporting!"

John nodded "Got it, Liara." He leaned in and kissed her on the lips, a long, sensual and loving kiss. "I love you… I'll be back sometime soon."

Liara nodded "I love you too, John, I'll be seeing you soon." She smiled a bittersweet smile as she watched the Restorer leave.

* * *

_Bridge, CSC Normandy, February 17, 3871_

"Hey Commander" EDI said with a deep frown. Lunch hour had just ended, and the second-shift lunch people had just come back to their stations.

"Hey EDI, what's up?" John asked cheerily, life was good…

"One of the Joint Coalition border colonies, Harvest, reports they have made hard contact with unknown aliens, from the Galactic East of the Cybran Nation and parts of the Seraphim Republic if our slipspace sensors are accurate." EDI reported. Perhaps life wasn't so good after all…

* * *

A/N: Those that recognized the first flashback's quotes, I don't think I even need to state that the Normandy Crew WILL be involved in SupCom Reclaimers. As in, nearly every single military person from Halo Canon will be replaced at least in most roles by them.

Preview included of Supreme Commander: The Reclaimers, scroll down to read.

* * *

Jacob's hologram gestured grandly up at the war machine that had just walked up, making the ground tremble with each titanic footfall "Usually Nanolathing works in mysterious ways that few but the best scientists truly understand, but not today! This here is thirty-two thousand tons of Heavy Microwave Laser-sweeping, Heavy Electron Bolter twinkling, Nanite Missile-firing, and Torpedo-capable Experimental-class intervention! Courtesy of Commander Miranda Lawson, have fun experimenting with it!" He grinned before giving the crew a thumbs-up and disappearing from the holo the Monkeylord had projected.

John, Liara, James and Tali traded looks before boosting up and entering the airlock at the front of the Monkeylord, noting the fact that its three "Hard points" where other units would attach to the hull were occupied by an Athanah Heavy Mobile Shield Generator and two Serenity Heavy Mobile Artilleries. Four Loyalists, a Deceiver, and four Bricks marched with it in patrol formation, two of each ahead, the Deceiver under the Spiderbot, and the other four behind to deal with incoming tactical missiles, most aircraft, and of course the smaller foes that Monkeylord firepower would have been wasted on. "Let's roll!" John exclaimed as he issued orders to the unit group, maintaining Formation with the right command and pushing forward into the city, long since evacuated and teeming with Covenant troops. It would soon become a city of blood as Fatboys, Galactic Colossi, Soul Rippers and their escort units moved in to massacre the units that would have accompanied the Prophet's Carrier.

James stated his opinion "They may have slight superiority in space weapons, but we have more shields and industrial capability, and on land, well…" A pair of shots from the Heavy Electron Bolters, the "long-range" weapons of the Monkeylord, erased two Wraith hover tanks from the Strategic display, which was feeding them sensor data from the Spy Planes overhead and energy for the shield/stealth from the Control Nodes and Command Units that were around to form the battle network. "Let's find those Scarabs and squash 'em like bugs!"

* * *

A/N: True, extreme overkill, a Brick could take a Scarab, even the bigger, tougher version I have. In canon Halo, Scarabs are 9 meters tall… round the same as a Mech Marine… yeah, NO.

REVIEW! AND GO READ RECLAIMERS! NOW!


End file.
